our group plays with a random draw of three characters to start the game. these characters are kept secret until everyone has decided upon their starting character. we keep drawn character cards secret because certain characters are more useful and or powerful when other specific characters are in play. i will use the gypsy as an example. when she plays against other characters that constantly have spells she is much more useful than playing against the warrior, troll. OC and their likes. when someones starting character dies they get the top card from the character card deck. one card. good luck. our group has tried a few different methods and we find this one works the best for us. nothing like winning with your second character that you got stuck with after picking from three and not making it happen. i am interested in hearing from y'all about how characters are chosen at your house. i am especially interested other ideas regarding if your starter character dies. i should say i think picking your character out of the deck is unacceptable in my mind and one of the reasons this game is great is because sometimes the minstrel wins.

We do the random 3 cards as well, but everyone can see and no one really changes their mind based on what other people have. There's often discussion about the characters, and explaining the merits and drawbacks of each one. Sometimes I pull characters out, either universally disliked ones or really over powered ones, but lately we've been using everyone.

Any character you don't is discarded from the game! With inheritance you get to pick 3 more characters and also discard the 2 you don't like. We've never got to the point where we ran out of characters, but once came pretty close, I guess we'd reshuffle the deck if that came up.

We do this thing where the next character gets a +1 to Strength and Craft, and their favourite Object and Follower, and this is repeated a total of 3 times, but as mentioned in a previous thread, as long as it's not through suicide. No bonuses then. This can be really beneifical in some situations. The first move of the game tonight had the Warrior rolling a one. He sent Death to the Black Witch who was in the Cursed Glade. She rolled a 1, fate and then a 5, sending Death right back to the Warrior. He rolled a 1, fate, then another 1, out of the game!! He started again as the Courtisan with his bonuses, totally legit by our own houserules. I went on to win the game as the Leprechaun, but still good fun from the get go.

Picking characters = single random, "you drew it, you play it"

Anything else doesn't count as random for me, deal 2-3, choose one gives too many options and would guarantee some characters never see action.

Reincarnation = single random, "you drew it, you play it"

You start from scratch, no bonus to stats, can't keep anything your previous character had. Most likely you died because you did something wrong/stupid, suck it up, it's your fault you died.

In my group each player picks 2 Characters and chooses which one to play. The other stays under the current card and will be the immediate replacement in case of death. No inheritance rules are accepted, if you die you lose everything and other Characters may loot it if they can.

I try to assure that every Character gets his chance to play. I track how many games have been played by each Character and, before each game starts, I create a pool of Characters to draw from. Characters from the previous game will be automatically excluded and over-frequent Characters as well.

The only doubt I have is whether to exclude Ogre Chieftain from the game at all or not. 3 appearance, 3 wins, the latter as a very late midgame replacement. Perhaps this is a really imbalanced Character, at least with the Dungeon expansion.

Dam said:

you tell em Dam

We play with 5 character draws.

Although I'm not as thorough as you Wizard, when making a character pool, I do it for similar reasons. If a character has made several recent appearance then it's excluded, which raises the chances for other characters. Since we took such a big break from the game, we are using the whole crew right now, 45 and soon to be more with Well of Souls =) I have a more... generous... method of handling picking and inheritance as there is often young boys, 10 & 12, playing, and I'm happy we're at a place where there is no more tears, the boys aren't crying anymore either!

i thank everyone that has replied even dam. i also never considered "younger people" playing like with inkblobs group. our game group is over 21 and younger than 40. when we start the game and pick our 1 of 3 the characters not chosen are discarded. i really like the warlocks house rule where the character not picked will be the one you play after your starter dies. this rule will be discussed and probably accepted at my house. i would also like to add that giving your second life bonuses to stats or a beneficial follower or object is unacceptable in a game with our group. in my mind it is very easy to kill off an unwanted character quickly in order to gain an unrealistic bonus in that situation. i can appreciate playing with children as opposed to adults that often act like children =). thanks again for your replies and any other ideas are more than welcome.

When me and my friends play, it varies depending on how many people there are:

2 Players: Draw 5 random, then the other person picks two of them to discard, so you have 3 to choose from, but necessarily the one you wanted. You then pick 1 based off of the 3 left

3 Players: Draw 3, pick 1 of them.

4 Players: Draw 2, pick 1 of them.

5 Players: Draw 2, pick 1 of them. Players may trade 1 character they do not want with another person, but each person cannot know what the character they are receiving is. Trading is only allowed Once.

6 Players: Draw 1, stick with it.

Trading is allowed ONLY when there are new players present for any amount of players (5 player can always trade), but this is to allow more experienced players to trade with the new players. The experienced player, if they are nice (which we usually are, we want them to stay) trades a strong character he may have drawn with a weak one a new character may have drawn, if he wants too. We tell the new players how everything works and strengths and weaknesses of specific characters, and how the character trade may benefit him in the long run. The main reason for this rule is to allow them to stick around, see how character choosing works, and makes sure the new player isn't immediately destroyed because of lack of knowledge combined with a weaker character.

Death Policy: Draw 1, it's yours. We retain turn order, but while you are getting everything ready you miss any turns you may get. Any characters that may have been killed already since we started our session CANNOT be played. (We usually just go for the Friday-Saturday overnight and play around 4 games. Played Characters aren't reintegrated until you cannot draw the amount required based on the number of people. This ensures that all the Characters can be played, and don't just sit in the pile. It also makes sure one person isn't the same character every time).

Above: A session constitutes a period of time where we play 1 or more games within a 24 hour period. After we part ways all characters may be played again.

originally i played pick three randomly then pick one but now we just choose whoever we want but since were both noobs were using different characters cause we just dont have any experiance

We pick a single one randomly and we play it, I only allow my son to occasionally choose a character of his choice so he can stand a chance.

Hi

Our games char drawing and death handling depends on amount of players:

3 players = Draw 2 cards pick 1, If you die you get a random new char

4 players = Draw 2 cards pick 1, If you die withing the first 40min you get a new char random after 40min no more resurecting

5 or 6 players = Draw 1 play it, If you die you die.

We actually had a 6 player game where a player on his first turn drawed the basilisk and died. Hilarious.

The_Warlock said:

This is what we do as well. We add +1str or +1craft to the next character to give a little boost, but we do not let them keep anything. They are always free to try to win the race to the space of course.

We usually discuss our characters with each other and some people do make a decision based on others choices. I have thought about changing how we draw characters because we usually get one person that gets 2 great characters, while another gets 2 iffy characters, but it usually is pretty even.

1. we pick the ending

2. deal x number of character decks for x number of players playing.

3. each players rolls one die

4. players show their choosen charater from their deck from lowest die roll to highest die roll showing his charater last.

lts a good strategy system esp guy who picks last and 2nd last they have an edge knowing what charaters they are up against in combo with the ending if its shown.

zzeds dead said:

how many cards does everyone have to choose between though

up to the group, we decide on the day, with new players we go the deck and encourage the vets to pick down, we want to encourage new players not wack em theres time for that later