I have a suggestion for cards for speeding up character generation.

I have a suggestion for cards for speeding up character generation.

I have a suggestion for cards for speeding up character generation.

The two biggest slow-downs in making characters and crew with a new group? First is nationality. The table has to strike a balance between speed and absorption, making the information on the various nationalities available to the players and they ponder, then decide.

Even on the scale of a few sentences each for a few nations, that slows the generation down significantly and uses up a chunk of the player decision making energy.

The second, and much bigger slowdown is when it comes time for each player to pick faction relations. Players (quite reasonably) want to understand what they’re deciding. And there’s a LOT to take in. For each and every player, and then synergies between players are possible, so there is discussion that can (should?) be taking place there. Not only understanding the factions, but then making decisions about them, and THEN contextualizing those decisions as appropriate.

What would be super handy is if there were cards that had the faction name and the brief description on them. Give every player two cards. Tell the players as a whole that those are the factions they may have dealt with, and let them pick which ones are friends and which are enemies.

Still let them have a +1 and a -1 each, but limit the playing field and give them easy obvious readable access to the factions.

As for the tier 3 they get a +1 and a -1 with, either put the tier 3 on different cards and give the players 2, or replace that part with asking them their status with the Crows, + or -, and if they choose -, give them 3 Coin that they didn’t pay as a tithe to the criminal masters.

Having the nationalities on cards would be handy too. I would make 3 cards for each nationality, then deal each player 2 cards and let them choose one or both to be their cultural identity. =)

6 thoughts on “I have a suggestion for cards for speeding up character generation.”

  1. Really like this idea for faction cards. My group likes a bit of randomness, so I’d probably have them roll for nationality, then choose 2 cards from the faction deck (or rolling on a faction table would also work). That way the time is spent on figuring out a plausible back story with fewer parameters.

  2. Adam Minnie I like the idea of a budget for choices. A new player only has the energy for so many choices before getting fatigued. Let’s put the choices where they’ll do the most good!

    Blades in the Dark is good about that in some ways, like laying out some gear and people you know so the decisions there are delayed until when the game is underway and there have been some deposits back into the player’s investment, so more choices are welcome.

    At generation, I’d much rather see players choosing HOW they’re connected to factions rather than spending that energy sussing out what the factions are about and slowing down to ponder. =) This way they’d still have some choices, but it would be less of a field and less overwhelming.

  3. Sean Nittner had an AP recently that’s been my secret sauce for this. It involves integrating factions ticks by asking questions. I’ll see if I can find it and link it.

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