Character Templates, by Genre

[brother_dour]

One of the Kickstarter stretch goals I'm working on right now are character templates.  Since Sin Nombre has no classes, these templates will just serve to help people who do not want to go off the grid to build certain common, iconic characters.  You know, kind of a , "Want to build a (character class)? Then look at these skills!" sort of thing

Comments

[sorceror]

I assume these types are intended to be broad enough to cover different specific types of characters (for example, a Soldier could be an army soldier, or a navy sailor, or what have you).

For Sci-Fi/Sci-Fi fantasy, I'd definitely include something more specialized for computers. (What are they called in typical cyberpunk - Runners? Hackers?) Also Cyborgs. And possibly Mutants.

Everything from Sci-Fi/Sci-Fi fantasy onward should probably have some sort of Medical Doctor option (or Healer for superheroes). Also an Academic/Professor type ("Scientist" just doesn't cover that well enough). And a generic Criminal and/or Con Artist. And perhaps a Specialist type that can be used for the many characters whose proficiencies aren't covered by the other types in the genre.

Superheroes can have a Mystic type, and a Gadgeteer as well.

[brother_dour]

Thanks. See- I told you I was missing some no-brainers.

But you are right- they are going to be rather general. The idea of the templates is as guidelines for people who are used to playing character classes or just want to make a character on the fly.

[sorceror]

Also, for Gothic Horror, should you have an "Ordained Priest" type? Depending on your interpretation I suppose that "Paranormalist" may cover it, but to me it's something separate - and relevant for that particular genre.

Socially, what about a "Don Juan/Femme Fatale" seducer type? I imagine that could fit into several of these genres. And/or a "Noble" or "High Society" (though they don't necessarily fit into the standard Adventurer mould, if that's what you're after).

[brother_dour]

Hmmm. I was thinking 'paranormalist' meant anyone who knew about and understood the supernatural- be they ordained priest / vampire hunter or voodoo queen or Miskatonic U. professor. What would an ordained priest's skillset be?

Simialrly, I would lump the seducer types and the nobles under diplomat. Do you think I should go more specific?

[antongarou]

I'd add a Genius template to the superheroes list, personally.

[brother_dour]

Do you think a genius type would be a valid PC choice, though?

[antongarou]

Why wouldn't it be?

[brother_dour]

I dunno. When I think 'genius' type, I think Professor X or to a lesser extent Kingpin or Ozymandias: planners and the 'brains behind the operation' who really don't get out with the team and do very much. I don't know how fun that would be to play unless the campaign were specifically set up for that kind of thing. So- seems to me more of an NPC template and a PC template.

[apestyle]

Modern Day: Hacker

[brother_dour]

Yeah. I need to add that. Thanks!

[blackpaladin]

Despite the fact that a lot of people didn't like the system, D&D4e's concept of "Roles" and "Power Sources" can be a great boon here.

For those not familiar with the concept, a character's "Role" is their basic function on a combat team. The roles listed in 4e are Controller, Defender, Leader and Striker. Controllers inflict negative status effects on your enemies and inflict AoE damage, Defenders are built to absorb damage, Leaders (arguably the least well-named; I would have gone with "Support" or something similar) heal and grant positive status effects on your teammates, and Strikers are built to inflict large amounts of damage, usually to one enemy. (If you want to get more detailed, you can split the Striker up into Melee-focused ("Scrapper") and Ranged-focused ("Blaster").) These are pretty independent of genre, and if you expand the utility outside of strictly combat (which is where I think a lot of people, including me, felt that 4e fell down), you can add more: "Face" and "Sneak" come immediately to mind, though that in

[brother_dour]

Interesting. I think I'm on the right track, then, because my RPG kind of glosses over the origins of abilities. That seemed the best way to make it universal. So you could have two characters with the ability to cast flames from their hand, but the differences are in the world details: the guy from the steampunk campaign would be a gadgeteer who built an awesome little flamethrower into a glove, but his swords and sorcery counterpart is using magic, of course. They would have the same power on their character sheet, though. But I think there is room for the Support and Face-type characters in several of the genres.

(As an aside, I played CoH for awhile, too. I had a tanker with fire powers named Daisy Cutter :D )

[blackpaladin]

> the guy from the steampunk campaign would be a gadgeteer who built an awesome little flamethrower into a glove, but his swords and sorcery counterpart is using magic, of course. They would have the same power on their character sheet, though.

The Mutants and Masterminds system (specifically 2nd and 3rd Editions) do a great job of making superpowers simply a list of effects, and the "flavor" is whatever you want, some of which can be advantages or flaws, such as a flamethrower glove that can be taken away or might malfunction, some of which are simply flavor (whether it shoots from your hands or your eyes, etc.). If you're trying to build a system that concentrates almost wholely on "what the ability does" rather than "how it does it or what it looks like," I'd definitely suggest looking to that system for inspiration. M&M3e is also the system that's being used in the current iteration of the DC Heroes RPG.

[brother_dour]

Now that you mention that game, I remember the professions from D20 Modern. I probably need to dig out my copy of that as well...