Pregenerated Con Characters

[Talakeal]

I am going to be running my second ever con game in the next few weeks, and I have a question about the "fluff" details for pre-generated characters.

The last con game I ran I left filled out all of the "crunch" for the pre-generated characters, all of their stats and numbers and stuff, but I left all of the "fluff" details like appearance, personality, alignment, name, background, etc. blank, giving each character only a brief summary of their motivation for taking part in the adventure.

However, I found that none of the players took any initiative in coming up with any of that information for themselves, most of them not even bothering to give their character a name. Its not that they didn't care or weren't invested in the game, they just seemed to have trouble coming up with that information on the spot.

So my question is, how much of this information should I fill in for the players this time? Personally I prefer having a blank canvas to make my own, but apparently not everyone is the same way. Where should I draw the line? Any advice?

Thanks!

[ComaVision]

I'm not a typical Con attendee (I've gone to one TTRPG Con and was kind of appalled by the people) but personally, I had zero investment in the characters I played. I think it's better to leave it blank unless you are going to specifically react to how a PC looks/acts for the purpose of the game.

[Vitruviansquid]

What I'd try is make characters with a bit of fluff, but leave gaps with clear and explicit options for players to fill in themselves. Maybe give your players something like this, and give them a few minutes to fill it in:

(Your name) is a (male/female) cleric who was raised in a monastery by devotees of the god/goddess _______. He/she was banished from the monastery in the late teens because _________________, but saw it as an opportunity to take up the adventuring lifestyle rather than waste away in a cloister. A more happy-go-lucky character than most, (your name) is also known for one other personality trait: _____________

[Aedilred]

I am going to be running my second ever con game in the next few weeks, and I have a question about the "fluff" details for pre-generated characters.

The last con game I ran I left filled out all of the "crunch" for the pre-generated characters, all of their stats and numbers and stuff, but I left all of the "fluff" details like appearance, personality, alignment, name, background, etc. blank, giving each character only a brief summary of their motivation for taking part in the adventure.

However, I found that none of the players took any initiative in coming up with any of that information for themselves, most of them not even bothering to give their character a name. Its not that they didn't care or weren't invested in the game, they just seemed to have trouble coming up with that information on the spot.

So my question is, how much of this information should I fill in for the players this time? Personally I prefer having a blank canvas to make my own, but apparently not everyone is the same way. Where should I draw the line? Any advice?

Thanks!

I think it depends largely on the scenario. Some one-shot scenarios suitable for convention play with a mystery plot or the like rely on (or would be/are greatly improved by) certain characters having certain attributes or predefined relationships to other PCs or NPCs. On the other hand sometimes it really doesn't matter at all. The system might also be relevant, as some will pretty much require a degree of party backstory to give context to the adventure; others enable more of a "good guys here, bad guys there, go gettem" approach.

I would say to give the players enough information that they can fulfil the requirements of their characters for the purposes of the scenario, and preferably no more than that. You don't want the players to feel like they're just following a script or to hit the players with a massive infodump, but equally, you won't have a lot of time to define characters and settings through the game itself, so frontloading that becomes more important.

[Maglubiyet]

What genre is your game going to be? A dungeon crawl requires significantly less character development than, say, a whodunnit murder mystery.

Personally, I think it's fun to fill in the details yourself (the GM). That will give your players a flavor of your gaming style before a single die is rolled. A flashy backstory and name can go a long way to setting the stage.

It will also give them something to remember the weekend by. Playing "Ungra 'No Nose' of the Firestorm Mountains" is probably more memorable than "some barbarian guy". You're competing with thousands of other vendors, events, and activities -- make yours stand out.

[erikun]

I find that it works better for the pregen characters to have fairly simple but established personalities. When sitting down at a convention table and playing a game, there is no telling what kinds of characters will even be available, much less have a distinct character in mind. Plus, convention games tend to be short and quick, so there isn't enough time to strongly develop an individual character.

If you just have a blank character sheet, then you'll end up playing "You the Healer" or "You the Sneak" or whatever class it is. This is probably fine if it's something like modern day zombie apocalypse, where the characters are supposed to be average people and a player "could" be there. It's a lot more awkward during your medieval fantasy or future star traveller setting, where the players don't even know the names of the cities or religions.

An established character on the sheet will allow people to get into the setting more easily. If you are playing Miranda, devoted priestess of the Sun God Ra, with spells of healing and blinding enemies, then it's a bit easier to play her up to character than if you are playing ____, religious person of _____, with healing and blind spells.

[Hunter Noventa]

I'd make some use of a character background generator, like the one pathfinder introduced in Ultimate Campaign. You don't strictly have to roll on the tables presented, but it can give you a good springboard of ideas that you can tailor to the style of game you're going for.

[Talakeal]

I'd make some use of a character background generator, like the one pathfinder introduced in Ultimate Campaign. You don't strictly have to roll on the tables presented, but it can give you a good springboard of ideas that you can tailor to the style of game you're going for.

Its not really an issue of me having to come up with ideas, its about not wanting to stifle player creativity.

Although, from the looks of it, that isn't a problem.

Or where you suggesting we all roll randomly generated backgrounds together at the table? I think that would probably be a bit much and take away a lot of time from the actual game.

[Hunter Noventa]

Its not really an issue of me having to come up with ideas, its about not wanting to stifle player creativity.

Although, from the looks of it, that isn't a problem.

Or where you suggesting we all roll randomly generated backgrounds together at the table? I think that would probably be a bit much and take away a lot of time from the actual game.

Ah no, i was thinking of it more for if you were having trouble coming up with it at all, not having everyone roll up everything.

Really for a con game you should probably pick out a few key traits and let the player run with them. Or not. No need to get much more detailed than that unless it's the sort of game that expects them to come into play, like the aforementioned murder mystery.

[LibraryOgre]

When I've made con character, I specifically tune them to be of any gender. I give you height, weight, stats, and leave the rest up to you. If they don't get involved in it, no problem; it's just a Con game, after all.

[Maglubiyet]

Which Con? I'm headed to Origins in a couple weeks. If you're there, I will find you, play this game, and whine incessantly about the lack of personality of my character.

[Talakeal]

Which Con? I'm headed to Origins in a couple weeks. If you're there, I will find you, play this game, and whine incessantly about the lack of personality of my character.

Its:
http://www.fearthecon.com

I don't (yet) have the time, money, or confidence to go to any of the big cons yet.

[The Evil DM]

Last CON game I ran I made a folder for each character. On the front of the folder was a 1/2 page to 1 page story about the character to place it in the setting. I made 12 characters for 8 players. The folders were laid out on the table and no one was allowed to look inside the folders until the characters were distributed. The players had to choose their characters based on the provided story.

The Story provided a description, and basic information about the character and objectives.

Inside the folder was a character sheet with the number details, additional background information and some things that were secret and not known to other players which included some secret objectives. The unchosen characters became NPCs that could be interacted with throughout the scenario.

Now this scenario had some real mystery behind it and was billed as PVP allowed. This made for interesting events as players used their secret knowledge and worked against each other.

Some more general thoughts on Convention games:

Depending on they system Rolling characters at the table can waste a lot of time. If you have an 8 hour game scheduled and you blow 2 hours of it creating a throw away character it sort of sucks.

Make the event memorable. In an 8 hour event you have time for 3 maybe 4 acts of a play. I have found the more integrated the characters are to each act in the play the more memorable it becomes. You are there to excite an impress. As mentioned above it is more memorable to play Adelgrim Painswick the Halfling Pirate than some generic character.

Be careful how you bill your event. If you plan to allow PVP make sure it is in the event description. If you plan to disallow also include that. The event billing should also have an introduction to whatever scenario you are going to present an any table rules that will apply. This way people sign up knowing what they are getting into.