I find the character creation for this game a bit dry. I would like to suggest a new method. If any of you have ever played Twilight 2000 or Mech Warrior, you may be familiar with what I’m about to suggest. It makes character creation a more complex process but leaves you with a character that has more character.
General Summary: Each character goes through stages in their life. At each stage you must make a choices as to what path you wish to follow. The more paths you choose the more skills/stats you gain, but as you age you get penalties to stats. Each path you choose will give a list of allowed skills/stats to raise.
Example:
First Stage: Origin
Choose where you come from. The country, the city, overseas, etc…
Country: You are from the sticks. You did most of your growing up surrounded by forests and nature, well away from the crowded city streets.
Survival: 1
Guns: 1
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Teen Years: Going to High School you learned many things.
Mechanics: 1 (shop class)
Strength: 1 (sports)
Rifles: 1 (ROTC)
Young Adult: What you do immediately after High School.
Enlist: US Army
Basic Training:
Rifles: 1
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
AIT: 11B Infantry
Rifles: 1
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Trait: Body Armor Training: You trained in body armor and are used to it’s encumbering effects and are thus move slightly easier in body armor. (-1 encumbrance on all limbs)
Adult Life: What you did for a living.
Tour of duty: Iraq
Rifles: 1
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Dodge: 1
5% chance to lose random limb. (Cybernetic replacement? Standard replacement? Cloned replacement?)
As you can see this system would be intense to build, but I think it’d keep things interesting.
The problem with character creating systems like these is that it gives you only so many options of character creation, whereas the current system (and many other roguelikes) let’s you create the character from scratch and in any shape and form you want, thus giving you basically endless character options. Yeah, it might be a bit dry, but it also makes sure that you can do whatever you want with your character. Systems like the one you suggested just don’t work with all type of games. Though I am, if worked on long enough, there could be a better and more “lively” system to character creation. As of now, noone is just willing to fix something that isn’t broken (unlike other parts of the game which need more attantion). Though, it’s still a nice suggestion.
I’ve been thinking it would be nice to have a stage after you finish your normal character creation, where you get to select a starting suit of clothes and from a small list of common stuff like lighters and cigarettes and aspirin, and bottled water, and the like. Just some little stuff you might already have in your pockets when the world ends around you.
TL;DR An extra step during generation that ensures all characters don’t start with identical costumes and empty pockets.
I love the current system although the skills seam underpowered compared to the stats as skills can be improved in game. Perhaps giving you some points that can only be spent on skills? Or even picking a job type, although that limits player creativity.
That’s the whole point though. Skills give you a great early game boost, but in the long run stats are more valuable. So you can choose to boost skills and have a smoother early game, or boost stats and prepare for the long term.
