[Design] Character Generation: Detail vs Opportunity Cost

[Carl Brown]

Hi all.
A high number of choices in a game can slow things down but there are ways to lessen the effect. In AD&D (haven't played 3rd ed.) there are a lot of choices the first thing I do is 'prune the tree'. I tell players the mantra is Race class kit. after they have chosen each of these they have a solid concept to guide other choices.
For systems without this refined hierarchy of choices that will produce a solid concept I tell players "come up with a 1-3 word concept" and then let that guide the chioces. For instance T&T has only three types(classes) and 5 kindreds (species). An 'elf wizard' is not the kind of concept that guides choices but a 'scholar', 'forest hermit' or 'enchantress' are the kinds of concepts that really help.
Of coarse all this can be ruined by that one player who has to 'thoughly research all thier options'. A promising beginers AD&D campaign a few years ago was destroyed by a player who wanted to read all of the first level wizard spells.


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