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Saturday, October 9, 2010

Adding a Little Yummy Crunch to Your Old School D&D Character Generation

A little over a year ago I experimented with several versions of a character generator that would allow a player to get up and running with in about 10-15 minutes with a fully statted-out, equipped character with a kooky backstory. Two versions of the generator (which was based off of a heavily-modified version from a Paul Jaquays article in the The Dungeoneer.)were ultimately published: one for Basic Fantasy RPG and another for Castles and Crusades.

In the midst of all that tinkering the mini-game nature of the backstory charts made be hanker for mixing some Traveller-flavored chocolate in my D&D peanut butter. The rub being that I didn't want to go full hog and dump the marvelously simple D&D way, so I agonized a bit over how to make a hybrid that kept the core while added a little more fun crunch.


Long story short it took me over a year (hey, I do have a real life), but here is my first stab. The PDF version can be downloaded here. I will likely be adding something like the Traveller mustering out tables to help speed up starting money and equipment.

As always any and all feedback or criticism is greatly welcomed.

[Editor's Note: due to the ridiculous amount of space the tables were taking up, I have cut them from the blog page. If you'd like to take a gander, mosey over to that download link above and get you a copy of the PDF file.]

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like fun! I will have to give this system a spin later on.

    P.S. You need to fix your second link (to your C&C version of the article).

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  2. Of course if you do ever get a chance to use it, that means your PC would have finally bit it in our campaign. So be careful for what you wish for haha.

    Thanks, link corrected.

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  3. Wow! These are really cool! Thanks for making them available

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