The Character Creation Section

"I am Jean Baptiste De La Pointe of his most Christian Majesty, Louis the XIII, Musketeers, at your service madam"

For whatever reason, I always get more of a feel for a character when he's got a name. A few quick Google searches for seventieth century French names and I came up with Jean Baptiste. I like the name because it's authentic and was popular during the 1600's in France. Plus it reminds me of Zorg from The Fifth Element (one of my favorite movies). De La Pointe is also authentic for the time period, but less popular.

After reading though the book I re-read the character creation section. There are a lot of Blog posts about the character creation section in RPG's. Opinions vary greatly from 'love them' to 'useless'. Personally, my opinion has evolved over the years. If they are well written, I have always seen them as a good resource. Normally information is presented in a liner fashion and all in one place making it easy to look up. Now, I also see them as the best guideline you are going to get for a given game. In All for One, the character creation section takes you step by step through creating a Musketeer. More importantly, it takes you step by step through creating a Musketeer. I know I just said that twice, but consider, All for One is a game designed specifically for playing a classical, right out of the movies or books, Musketeer. The character creation section in All for One and just about every other game on the market is geared towards making exactly the kind of character the game is designed for.

This is a valuable resource for both novice and experienced players. Many role-playing games produced these days are setting specific games. They are designed with a specific genre and style in mind. The character creation chapter(s) presented in the rules are likewise designed to roll up a character that fits within that genre and style. This is the type of character that the game was most likely play-tested with. As such this is the type of character that works in the game.

Almost all of these games present themselves as flexible to appeal to a larger audience. In fact many games are built these days using mechanical systems designed for other games. Some systems even claim universal setting adaptability. Other types of characters may work within the genre and style just fine, but it's always best to remember that the character created using the chapter(s) presented in the book(s) are always what the writers had in mind when making the game.

Game writers, like GMs, are usually loath to tell players what kind or style of character they should roll up. Guidelines are presented, but there is almost always loopholes and ways to go way outside of the box. Players like to make really cool and or unusual characters. GMs are no more immune to this rule-of-cool approach than their players are. But every step outside of the guidelines represents something that has to be worked into the game, or around in game, or added to the game, or subtracted to the game. In other words, something that is just as likely to be a problem as it is to be cool.

Besides, I have not as of yet, in my two and a half decades of playing, found a character creation section in a rule book that makes cookie-cutter generic characters. Following the guidelines in the books and a little imagination provides for a nearly infinite variety of characters that are just as cool and unusual as characters that are made up ignoring the text suggestions. With the added bonus that they almost always work in game.

In summary, the character creation section presented in the rule books is a valuable resource, don't be opposed to using it.