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[Darvi]

Heh.

[Vorthon]

Well, at least it's justified.

[Sowelu]

That actually sounds pretty cute.  Very 1st Ed.-ish.  I'd use that.

[Neonivek]

One thing you need to balance is that you need to allow your players to feel competent or amazing at what they do and feel their improvements.

If they get an awsome new weapon that somehow unbalances the game... maybe you could find a way to let them try it out and then have them lose it. Though actually maybe that won't work.

[Sowelu]

One thing I like to do is ask my players to write down on notecards a list of plot elements and places they'd like to see, a long enough list that you can pick at least something from each player while rejecting ones you don't like.  For one thing it'll help you get ideas, but if your paladin is making a big deal out of wanting to save innocents then you know you can make him super happy by giving him a burning orphanage to dash into, and maybe some other player would really love to have a duel on top of a mountain in a lightning storm...hey, that's not so hard to work into a campaign if you're already going to be on a mountain.

[Gorjo MacGrymm]

One thing I like to do is ask my players to write down on notecards a list of plot elements and places they'd like to see, a long enough list that you can pick at least something from each player while rejecting ones you don't like.  For one thing it'll help you get ideas, but if your paladin is making a big deal out of wanting to save innocents then you know you can make him super happy by giving him a burning orphanage to dash into, and maybe some other player would really love to have a duel on top of a mountain in a lightning storm...hey, that's not so hard to work into a campaign if you're already going to be on a mountain.

Thats not a bad idea at all. I usually make players write a paragraph or more of a backstory or character end-goal that I can work into the game.  I know it sucks as a player when you have an idea for a character and the game never goes anywhere in that direction.

[Vorthon]

I managed to find a copy of Player's Handbook II. It's got stuff on the character's background. I might use that.

[Gorjo MacGrymm]

I managed to find a copy of Player's Handbook II. It's got stuff on the character's background. I might use that.

Dont pigeon hole the players.  They might have their own background thought up.  Its no fun playing "someone elses" character backstory.  If they dont come up with anything and dont care, then your free to do whateever you want to them of course, and perfectly right to do so.  At that point they want to play your story.  But, they are probably not going to roleplay as much as those who have their own story idea.  Players who wait for you to make it all up tend to be just dice rollers........

[Vorthon]

Let me rephrase that: It has stuff for helping players come up with backgrounds for their characters.

[Gorjo MacGrymm]

Let me rephrase that: It has stuff for helping players come up with backgrounds for their characters.

Perfect!

[Vorthon]

It has suggestions for backgrounds (Guttersnipe, Noble Scion, Mariner, etc.), and some personality archetypes (Daredevil, Simple Soul, Trickster, etc.), and individual personality traits if players don't find any archetype they like in the book.

And an appendix that provides a series of tables and steps for creating PCs and NPCs quickly. Useful stuff, to say the least.

[GlyphGryph]

Dont pigeon hole the players.  They might have their own background thought up.  Its no fun playing "someone elses" character backstory.  If they dont come up with anything and dont care, then your free to do whateever you want to them of course, and perfectly right to do so.

Depends on the players, really. Some prefer to come up with their background, some prefer the fun of having a randomly determined background, and some prefer taking over existing characters so they can jump right into the game, and some prefer taking over existing characters because they know that certain types of campaigns are vitally dependent on them, and those types of campaigns can be really fun.

Also, have you decided how you're going to do character generation? I prefer the Hackmaster standard of "roll stats, they are where they land, then pick a class and develop background that you hope can make them work", some prefer "Players get a certain amount of points to distribute among their stats as they see fit(set or random)" some people prefer "pick class+background, roll4keep3, assign to the stat you want" and there's a lot of variety in between. I'm not even sure what the actual printed standard is for that in your edition, but most people ignore it in favour of their own preference and you should too. ^_^

[Lord Shonus]

4d6 drop lowest is the standard in the 3.5 ruleset, with point-but suggested as an alternative.

[GlyphGryph]

Is it choose stat then roll4keep6, or roll4keep6 then choose stat?

[Vorthon]

It's the 'roll four, keep the best 3, add those together and apply to the stat of your choose. Repeat until all stats are accounted for.' method. I like it, because there's an element of surprise. My first attempt at making a character (For my first and only D&D session before the one coming up.), the lowest result I got was ten. I was happy, to say the least.


Damnit, ninja'd!

Damnit! Double Ninja'd!