[Design] Character Generation: Detail vs Opportunity Cost

[Andrew Leitch]

The problem with Ars Magica is that PC's start off way too powerful compared to say, the grogs. They seem almost like demi-gods. If they started off less powerful, you wouldn't need to spend the entire night just reading up on spells.
   
  My experience went: 
   
  "What sort of character do you want?"
   
  "Well, can I be a fighter?"
   
  "No."
   
  "Can I be a fighter mage?"
   
  "Yes. But you'd be severely limiting yourself."
   
  "Okay. So I'll be a mage."
   
  "What kind of mage do you want to be?"
   
  "I've no idea... (and after they were explained to me)... I've still no idea... How about I have a look at the spells. There can't be that many.... OH MY GOD!"
   
  4 hours later: "So have you decided yet?"
   
  "Well... no... Every time I get started looking at a spell someone steals the book away to make their character..."
   
  They should have gone for spell lists rather than spell groups. That way you only had to make a choice from 20 spell lists, rather 2000 spells. You could buy the first 3 or 4 spells in each list and be done with it. (Maybe I'm recalling this wrong though...).
   
  There's not much encouragement for playing good characters either, when the central ethos of the various magic guilds seems to be "don't get caught" rather than "don't do". 
   
  - Andrew


  

>From: Lev Lafayette 
>Reply-To: Design at mimesisrpg.com
>To: design at mimesisrpg.com
>Subject: [Design] Character Generation: Detail vs Opportunity Cost
>Date: Tue, 15 Nov 2005 16:42:49 -0800 (PST)
>
>
>Last night Erica and I visited Kyle's place to play
>Ars Magica. It's a game I've read and wanted to play
>for many, many years but have never had the actual
>chance.
>
>It's got great ideas. A mythic Europe, which you all
>know I like. An interesting magic system based on
>nouns and verbs and in Latin (e.g., "Creo Ignem" =
>"Create Fire"). You roleplay a troupe of characters, a
>main wizard, a couple of companions and a bunch o'
>grogs. Your group forms a covenant.
>
>All very exciting, quite inventive and after ten-plus
>years it's still a good game. But dammit, we spent the
>entire night on character generation and we're still
>not finished. It's not as if Ars Magica has a
>particularly complex character generation either.
>
>Tell you what, if I get killed in the first hour of
>actual gameplay, I'll be royally pissed!
>
>My thoughts compared this to HeroQuest/Hero Wars where
>you can walk in and say "Heortling Warrior, devotee to
>Humakt" and your character is ready. I want character
>generation to be that quick if necessary. But I don't
>want every "Heortling Warrior, devotee to Humakt" to
>be the same either.
>
>In this case the golden mean applies, I think. How
>much time should character generation take? How
>individual should a character be?
>
>One thing I've noticed. Random rolling of
>characteristics can often be faster than players
>having to choose stats and traits!
>
>
>
>Lev Lafayette
>lev_lafayette at yahoo.com.au
>http://au.geocities.com/lev_lafayette
>
>
>
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