OK, first thing hi everyone sorry to bother you but I could use some help. I am about to start my first from scratch campaign and it's going to be an imperial one, not to say that the pc's can't defect part way thru but so far I'm planning they will be imps for whole thing. My question is, so far I have only rum games with pre gen characters, how should a run a character creation session and it still be entertaining? Do I just run it where we slowly hand core book round table as people make characters or should I make it part of the story and say "as you all sit in your seat in your transport on the way to the star destroyer you have been assigned to you get to talking to your fellow passengers" and the get them to build it as part of a story? Any help you could give would be great thanks

if your players love to exercise their creativity, I recommend Begging For XP's Session 0 guide.

if your players love to exercise their creativity, I recommend Begging For XP's Session 0 guide.

This is spot on.

We did just this for my Edge of the Empire game and developed not just the characters but the overall theme of the campaign, and I as the GM found ways to combine elements of each character's story so that some of them are related in some way.

Thanks for this. The only problem is the step 4 leaves me with same problem with character creation. I'm going to have 4 players sat round the table waiting to make there character. With only me having the core I will almost seem like me spending 2 hours having one to one chats with the players. How does everyone else do it?

Character creation doesn't tale too long for us at our table, but that could be because we are now more experienced with these systems.

It also helps that I have AoR, EotE, and the F&D beta book which all 3 contain rules. Not to mention all of the sourcebooks that my players are likely to use during character creation.

If you have a tablet to pass around (or don't mind printing them all off) you could pass around these talent trees made by Doc, the Weasel. They are poor substitutes for the books, but once you know your fluff, and your career skills, they'll take care of your talents.

And on a similar note, I have also copied all armor, equipment, and species information into an Excel spreadsheet that I can pass around to my players who are waiting for the books they need.

That's great cheers I'll print them for a ref for my players.

one thing I tell everyone, get oggdudes program in the eote forum. its in the another character generator topic. helps greatly in the creation process. keeps track of points, helps you see what you can do, gives you pages to look up for what does what. and speedsup the pprocess.

as for the idea of a character creation session, I say do it. it gives the chance do plan characters together be able to overlap weakness of other characters, work out character differences (I had one group I played a drow and a player hated stow and wanted to kill them all), and work together to understand the rules of creation. as for if its boring or not, don't worry about that. its still a bunch of friends.getting together eating snacks and hanging out last creation session, we had a smash bros torney with whoever wasn't using the book.

edit: it also gives a chance for the group to work out what kind of campaign they want. like fireflyish, or focusing in the war against the empire, as examples.

Thanks for this. The only problem is the step 4 leaves me with same problem with character creation. I'm going to have 4 players sat round the table waiting to make there character. With only me having the core I will almost seem like me spending 2 hours having one to one chats with the players. How does everyone else do it?

I agree this can seem a little daunting, I'm still not sure what the best solution is.

In our session zeros we tend to go section-by-section and create characters together, but people often want different things or have different understandings of the rules. I usually find a couple of things that don't quite add up when I input the characters to OggDude's program later.

If I had the resources I'd love to let each player use OggDude's program to actually construct their character once we'd all discussed the general theme and backgrounds of the characters.

we have a flat screen in the living room, so we just hook the computer up to that, but I know that isn't an option for everyone.

That link -- I've never heard of such a thing. I don't think it would be fun at all. YOU are literally writing a story, creating the plot and NPCs than playing it? What?! You mean it's like writing a book, knowing the plot and expecting to be entertained like its the first time you've read it? No.

I suggest a basic framework of what you'll do and cover. I suggest:

1. Intro, what the genre is, how dark, real, light hearted or easy/hard it will be. Mix and match. Intro can also give time line.

2. Intro to rules. Quick overview. Overview of how dice work.

3. Basic intro to what players were wanting to play-- what they imagined themselves playing, let the PCs discuss if they want to power game: we need a tank, dps and healer. Or skirt that issue and let them try and play whatever. PERSONALLY go for letting them play whatever and push away from making an organized holy trinity-- AS A GM its your job to create a story for your group build and not damper fun by making a slicing check session at daunting levels with not slicer in the group-- makes no sense.

4. Briefly have the players write adjectives down -- stealthy, shooty, tough, charming, pilot, etc ( I did this step before the group met so I knew where to point them for a career.

5. Write or print page 34 EOTE and give copy to each player, steps 1-10. 1-9 of doing beginner box.

6. I'm leave this step to physically making the sheets or using a program to fill in the blanks

Let me add, add a time limit to each. 5-10 minutes each. Have snacks and drink. This is a cold hard outline. Make it fun and warm and of course-- have fun.

Not a bad read either:

http://www.rpg.net/columns/building/building1.phtml

It can help with framing characters for this game And can be applied.

That link -- I've never heard of such a thing. I don't think it would be fun at all. YOU are literally writing a story, creating the plot and NPCs than playing it? What?! You mean it's like writing a book, knowing the plot and expecting to be entertained like its the first time you've read it? No.

I kind of get where you're coming from. A lot of recent games like 13th Age allow for greater player input into the world at large. Personally I run a pretty tight ship as GM, because I have very specific plots and story arcs in mind.

I think somewhere in the middle is usually a good idea - the GM should run the story, but should make sure they also add ideas from the players and integrate them to the plot. The PCs Obligations and back-stories are great for this. As I run three different sets of PCs, these can even spill into the other groups. One player said their character had a brother who was an Imperial Agent; they hate each other but stay out of one another's way. So he became a villain in the AoR group instead. Another AoR player had the neat idea that the character was the original owner of the EoE team's ship.

As long as the GM has final arbitration, letting the players contribute to the setting is mostly a good thing.

I don't mind running plots than asking how my players wish to proceed. I don't run linear modules unless PCs ask for them. I want open sandbox world for them. Let them seek the jobs or adventure-- but don't get me wrong, sometimes they will be stuck in plots ice written for them. I will create overlaying plots and adventures that they can seek out. Example: they may look for a bounty but suddenly the Catina next to them exploded (plot hook) they may go enter that plot or run away if they want...up to them.

In our case we did kind of a hybrid.

The PCs determined their various obligations, and I as the GM worked after the session to determine how they connected to each other, and came up with some twists that would come into play later on.

So it's not as though the players came up with every last detail of their world so there are no surprises.

I ran a brand new AoR session recently and let my players decide on their motivations and duty afterwards, using their actions in the first game to inform the finishing touches to their backstory. It worked very well, with a surprising instance where the commando character ended up with Recruitment as his duty - but it fit perfectly because of how he'd played (and would have never turned out that way had he chosen his duty prior to the lesson in response to how he thought he MIGHT play). I'll be trying this again in future because it means that part of chargen happens organically rather than spinning out any kind of Session 0.

Not a bad read either:

http://www.rpg.net/columns/building/building1.phtml

It can help with framing characters for this game And can be applied.

Looks to me like the whole series of columns at http://www.rpg.net/columns/list-column.phtml?colname=building would be a good read for a lot of players on these forums!

Do I just run it where we slowly hand core book round table as people make characters

You know, hashing out character concepts doesn't have to be boring. Brainstorming a concept with the group can lead to some twists a single person would have never thought of. My current character? She was suppose to just be a princess on the run from her people because "its complicated". It was the other players who suggested "Her culture doesn't like Jedi? What if she turns out to be strong in the Force?

From there it spun out into the reason she is on the run is because she accidentally killed her husband on their wedding night by shoving him over the balcony with Move, ending a marriage that was suppose to unify two waring planets. So suddenly guilt and responsibility and a sense of duty to put things right somehow - plus healthy dose of self loathing for what she is. None of this would have been built into the character without gathering around the table and hashing out ideas.

So while someone is banging out their character with the book (and honestly, chararacter creation doesnt take that long), the others are brainstorming backstory and character goals and setting and background.

Right so I ran first session and it seemed to go well, I had made some cheat sheets for character creation so no one needed the book and I just talk the table thru the creation as a group. 3 of the 4 were brand new to role play but hopefully after a session or two the group will loosen up with each other. But I now have a party of a pilot, a commander, a sharpshooter, and a infiltrator let's see where they go with it