How Immersive & Involved do you want Character Creation to be?

[Industrial Scribe]

So I got to thinking about Character Creation and how different games have handled it.

 

One of the most enjoyable times I ever created a Character was Mass Effect 1. Even though it was basically a step-by-step progression Character sheet

the trappings used in its construction allowed you to either play straight away as Sheploo or build your own Shepard without a jaringly different experience for the self created avatar. The failing computer records system (That occurred when you Generated your own Shepard) felt just as much a part of the story as the plot that followed. (This was lost a bit in ME2 & ME3, in fact Character import being broke was a major negative)

 

It was neither to confusing or sparse in appearance and the music was a dream. The different themes really thrust you into the story and your Origin choice had a real game effect in the tone setting of the opening sequence.

 

This was enough for me to still love the game even after the A,B,C pick a colour ending and RUSH JOB that was ME3 that made me spit bullets.

 

What do people want to see (or don't want to see) when sorting out an Avatar to play P.E.

[Answers on the back of a postcard ]

[Cryticus]

I want something large, and maybe even needlessly complicated and I am here serious , I love to spend hours with character creation having fun with stats, traits, class, races, background, something in vein of second NwN , what I don't want to see is what bioware did with mass effect and dragon age 2 where you play one character who can be either jerk, good guy or a fool

[Metabot]

This is a strange poll. I'll just go with, I want character creation to be something like D+D plus Fallout.

[Infinitron]

If you're a fan of character creation that disguises itself (however superficially) as part of the game's plot, then Bethesda's games have some good examples.

 

There's also the Ultima-style "personality quiz" method of character creation but those are way too prone to cheesy metagaming IMO.

 

But yeah, in terms of sheer size and complexity you can't go wrong with NWN2's chargen.

Edited September 29, 2012 by Infinitron

[GhostofAnakin]

The deeper the character creation process, the more those differences between the characters you can make should be noticeable in the actual game.

 

In other words, I want a really in depth character creation process, but I want my different decisions to actually have an impact on the game world. If we're to choose actual backgrounds for our characters, then maybe a background-specific sidequest needs to be added. That way my thief who grew up on the street will have to deal with a situation that my paladin from a wealthy family does not have to in my travels.

[Crusty]

Creating a character was an absolute joy in Neverwinter Nights 2 and Darklands. Could spend hours creating characters in either game.

[Industrial Scribe]

I want something large, and maybe even needlessly complicated and I am here serious , I love to spend hours with character creation having fun with stats, traits, class, races, background, something in vein of second NwN , what I don't want to see is what bioware did with mass effect and dragon age 2 where you play one character who can be either jerk, good guy or a fool

 

I'm not really focusing on Story rail roading or conversation options, more on the feeling of the act of Character creation and if some people can come up with a system that is both

intuitive & highly customisable.

 

When I talk of Mass Effect it is purely to state what I thought was done right about it not to be a Bioware Cheerleader

 

Yes we could of been given more options but the way it dealt with the limited hand of cards a player was presented with was well done in my opinion.

[Jasede]

Something like RoA or Darklands or Daggerfall.

In a pinch, something like NWN 2 is vaguely acceptable.

 

Just none of this streamlined modern garbage that chokes me in tutorials and helpful hints. I can read the manual, thank you.

[Merin]

Creating my character is the number one reason why I play cRPGs. Everything else comes in behind being able to create my own character.

 

I have fun with questionnaires, or playing through character creation, as long as it is skipable and I get to see a character sheet at the end and edit it to my tastes.

[Industrial Scribe]

Again I'm not trying to support a hand holding, one size fits all character creation. Just trying to see what people enjoy about different games.

 

Think of it more as an attempt to make the deep complex version of character creation something that everybody will want to do and not just a glorified

filling in of the back of a beer mat with a note about how you really like swords the best.

 

Also I want these choices to matter and be represented in the story. If you want me to pick a favourite colour or an evil childhood nemesis it better appear in the game.

[Nonek]

Arcanum had a fairly nice balance, more recently I also liked Drakensangs.

 

What the hell ever happened to Dragon magazine anyway, just stopped appearing in the newsagents over here in blighty.

[Shadenuat]

Fallout-like. One screen, few clicks, but long-term sprawling consequences after. Sometimes less is more.

Edited September 29, 2012 by Shadenuat

[Merin]

Arcanum had a fairly nice balance, more recently I also liked Drakensangs.

 

What the hell ever happened to Dragon magazine anyway, just stopped appearing in the newsagents over here in blighty.

 

Dragon? Uhm, WotC took the license away from Paizo and made it part of the WotC D&D website first, then part of DDI. Back in like 2007-2008.

[Infinitron]

To be honest I don't think the exact form of the character creation is really that important, as long as it's powerful and reasonably complex.

 

Obsidian should go with whatever they feel fits the game thematically.

[Crooked Bee]

A character sheet is all I need. I don't mind other styles of character creation too as long as they complement/lead up to and not replace it.

Edited September 29, 2012 by Crooked Bee

[Nonek]

Went missing in action mid 90's over here, ah well cheers anyway Merin.

Edited September 29, 2012 by Nonek

[Industrial Scribe]

I Think Dragon and Dungeon magazine were taken out back & shot. Then the Zombie Magazine that calls itself "White Dwarf" Danced on its corpse...

 

I wish there was a decent magazine that covered everything like the early Dragons & White Dwarfs. The covers and artwork was just great.

[Leferd]

Jagged Alliance 2 and Arcanum had fun character creation mechanics. But after the questionnaires, as others have stated, we should have the ability to modify the character sheet prior to finalizing.

[PsychoBlonde]

I didn't vote because I'm not sure I'm visualizing exactly how some of these options would work. I also object to the use of the term "Immersive" here because character *creation* ought to PRECEDE the game. Lemme see here:

 

PRELUDE--this sounds a lot like how Bethesda has done character creation recently, no? I'm not a huge fan of this because it becomes INCREDIBLY annoying to play through the same very restricted series of mini-quests in order to start a new character.

THEMED STEP-BY-STEP--can I get an example game for this one? Are you talking about the character creation screen(s) having some kind of voiceover that informs you "if you lower your strength that far, you will have to make 35 trips to the dungeon to carry out enough loot to repair your gear" Or are you talking about something like the old Daggerfall system where they'd have questions like "what's your most prized possession" and depending on what you pick, you get a bonus starting item? (I always picked the ebony dagger because a.) worth a lot of cash and b.) only way you were guaranteed to get a weapon that could hurt that @#$#@ imp at the end of the first dungeon.) Either way, it sounds like pointless cheese which would definitely get annoying on repeated playthroughs.

RANDOM ROLL--I don't even think this one belongs on the poll because this has nothing to do with the stylistic fixin's surrounding character creation. It's just how you generate stats. I notice you didn't include point buy as an option. I (kind of) like random roll in that it gives you the (theoretical) opportunity to create a character that's unusually powerful provided you have the patience to roll 5,000 times, but, ultimately, I'd be just as happy if they let you manually max out your stats and go. Or just gave you fixed stats or point buy--it's the same in the end and saves a ton of clicking. I would like it if you get more stat points for a new character when you complete the game, though, that'd make trying out new builds more fun for me.

INTERACTIVE--Personally, I think this sort of thing is a colossal waste of time as character creation. It becomes INCREDIBLY annoying when you have to repeat it every. time. you. play. If they did it like Baldur's Gate's tutorial where it's a completely separate sideline to the game (Candlekeep was not actually the "tutorial" for that game), that'd be okay.

RTFM--I prefer nowadays that games don't really even have a manual, but I would like the game to be deep enough that if you want to really powergame it with all the hard modes turned on, you're going to be considering where to spend every point. Likewise I'd prefer if newbies just looking for a good time can toss their points in any old how and go. (Or even use a pre-generated build helpfully included by the devs.) So I'd prefer there not be Required Reading.

OLD SCHOOL CHARACTER SHEET--This option is covered under at least 3 things you've already listed.

PRE-GEN--now you're talking about story and not stats. This isn't and doesn't have to be a DIFFERENT option from the ones you've already listed, it could be combined successfully with any of them.

GET ON WITH IT--even with The Nameless One you had to decide how to spend your stats, so, again, this could exist alongside any of the other systems above.

 

Ultimately, I just don't want to be forced to play a tiresome little mini-adventure questionnaire thing before I can distribute my stat points (or however character creation is going to work), mod my appearance (as much as this is going to be possible when your character is ONE INCH HIGH), and go. I REALLY don't.

[RosesandAshes]

I like questionnaires, interactive kinds of character creation processes (although if it is interactive, I'd like the option to change it, like what Oblivion did, suggest a class based on your performance). Number-crunching really isn't my thing.

[Umberlin]

Creating a highly detailed character, getting in there and playing with the numbers and carcing out a background to give the character life are all highly important to me.

[Vampero]

To me Character Creation is very important ! I want so many choices to choose from .

[Merin]

I'm going to go so far as to add that character creation is more than twice as important to me as story and companion characters combined!

 

I just like making characters.

[Malcador]

Can't really say I'm all to concerned by the method of making it, more appreciative of the world reacting to the stuff I've chosen, but I'd pick the step by step option

Edited September 29, 2012 by Malcador

[Deraldin]

As long as I don't have to sit through some tedious character generation/prologue thing like Fallout 3, I'm good. That thing was infuriating.