Pre-Generated Characters

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Solomoriah
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Pre-Generated Characters

Post by Solomoriah »

So here I am again getting ready for another Quincon appearance, and the daunting task of writing out all those character sheets. Gah.

Never again.

For your consideration: Pre-Generated Characters, a supplement full of character sheets for the 8 characters from Morgansfort, given as beginners and at (average) levels of 2, 3, 4, and 5. I will probably do higher levels, but this was a slog.


https://basicfantasy.org/downloads.html#pregen
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Re: Pre-Generated Characters

Post by Solomoriah »

Those of you who have followed along from the beginning may remember that all but one of the eight pre-generated characters from Morgansfort were actual player characters in my very first games, 35 years ago.

I've already taken some liberties with stats, swapping Morningstar's ability scores and bumping Lucas' to make them more reasonable characters. I would not require my players in my current games to play characters with the original stats of these old PCs, so there is no reason to make players of the pregens suffer either.

But I'm considering making other changes. Apoqulis and Aura, for example, end up being nearly carbon copies of each other; Bork and Darion could also use some tweaking. It's funny that both clerics have +2 CON bonuses, and both human fighters have +1 CON bonuses... I'm strongly tempted to rearrange things so that's no longer the case.

Beyond that, I'm strongly considering adding 8 more pregens to the file.

The first four would represent non-traditional race and class combos, legal in BFRPG but not available in that game I ran 35 years back. I'm considering a halfling cleric (a pretty fun class, actually, having played one before), a dwarf thief, an elf magic-user/thief... hmm. Maybe the last could be an elf cleric?

The other four would represent the supplement races on the Downloads page: a gnome of some kind, likely a magic-user or a magic-user/thief; a half-elf, probably a cleric; a half-orc, probably a thief; and a half-ogre, who would of course be a fighter.

Looking for comments, suggestions, etc. regarding any or all of the above. Also need names for these additional pregens.
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Dustinian
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Re: Pre-Generated Characters

Post by Dustinian »

Names
Solomoriah wrote:Also need names for these additional pregens.
I love referencing Medieval history for my games. I recognize that not all of it applies, but I think a few sprinkles of real history here and there add verisimilitude to games. To that end, here are two lists of real Medieval Names: And here are some of my favorites:
  • Abelard
  • Aiden
  • Burleigh
  • Eberhard
  • Gainor
  • Kemp
  • Landis
  • Latimer
  • Makon
  • Mendel
  • Merri
  • Perla
  • Sterne
  • Tabor
  • Warin


Stats
Solomoriah wrote:I've already taken some liberties with stats, swapping Morningstar's ability scores and bumping Lucas' to make them more reasonable characters.
OK, I recognize what I'm about to say goes against the ethos of BFRPG... when playing a regular campaign. But then again, so does the concept of pre-generated characters, so hopefully you won't consider this blasphemy when dealing with a one-shot at a convention: What about using a "standard spread" of ability scores for pre-generated characters?

I've played a few (only two, so far) BFRPG games with total newbies, and I've found that informing new players that their characters had equal ability scores cut out any complaints about fairness.

I use 18(+3), 16(+2), 14(+1), 11, 11, 8(-1). This creates characters with a net of +5... but still with one -1 that they need to think about.

I've used that spread both for: Note that the fairly beefy +5 characters doesn't result in terribly overpowered characters. For example, Tug Smit from Terror on the Cattaro only has 5 hit points even at Level 3 thanks to the -1 being allocated to CON.
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Solomoriah
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Re: Pre-Generated Characters

Post by Solomoriah »

I've thought about a standard spread, but so far I'm holding out for a more "normal" looking character basis (i.e. more random).
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Re: Pre-Generated Characters

Post by Solomoriah »

I've uploaded R2 of this supplement, adding characters at around 7th level (74,000 unadjusted XP). I needed them for a public game this weekend, so here they are.
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Re: Pre-Generated Characters

Post by Solomoriah »

Did a bunch of revisions. Between the two clerics Apoqulis and Aura, there was an obvious best choice; between Darion and Bork, no significant difference, while Thorus was always a better option than either of them. I've redone them all to make the choices less obvious.
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Re: Pre-Generated Characters

Post by gabeprime »

I just bumped into this and I really like these sheets. It doesn’t seem to be in the showcase though. Would they ever be placed there?
Hi! I’m Gabe.
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Re: Pre-Generated Characters

Post by Solomoriah »

Well, Gabe, this sort of answers your question...

Announcing!

Pre-Generated Characters, Release 5 -- July 13, 2023
For anyone needing characters for a one-shot or convention game, here are versions of the pre-generated characters from BF1 Morgansfort, laid out on character sheets ready to use. Multiple versions are included, ranging from beginners up to characters averaging the 7th level of experience.

https://basicfantasy.org/downloads.html#pregen
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