Comments on: The Characterisation Puzzle: The First Decision http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/characterisation-the-first-decision/ Expert tips and how-to's on every aspect of creating and running exceptional campaigns. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:45:22 +0000 hourly 1 By: furiana http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/characterisation-the-first-decision/comment-page-1/#comment-2342 furiana Mon, 22 Mar 2010 05:14:39 +0000 http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/?p=1515#comment-2342 Heh. Yeah, this has been a great series of posts! And I can see why it developed into a series; there is a *lot* of information there, especially with the examples. Heh. Yeah, this has been a great series of posts! And I can see why it developed into a series; there is a *lot* of information there, especially with the examples.

]]> By: Mike http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/characterisation-the-first-decision/comment-page-1/#comment-2338 Mike Sun, 21 Mar 2010 22:52:45 +0000 http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/?p=1515#comment-2338 Sounds like you are definitly feeling inspired, there furiana! That's great to hear, that's the sort of feedback that makes the effort of writing such a series posts seem worthwhile. (I suppose that I should come clean at this point and admit that the whole "Characterisation Puzzle" series was originally intended to be just one post - but I found that I had a lot to say....) Sounds like you are definitly feeling inspired, there furiana! That’s great to hear, that’s the sort of feedback that makes the effort of writing such a series posts seem worthwhile. (I suppose that I should come clean at this point and admit that the whole “Characterisation Puzzle” series was originally intended to be just one post – but I found that I had a lot to say….)

]]> By: furiana http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/characterisation-the-first-decision/comment-page-1/#comment-2335 furiana Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:50:22 +0000 http://www.campaignmastery.com/blog/?p=1515#comment-2335 I'm also finding that the inversion principle works best when I don't use the same character all the time. The source material is too limited, as you mentioned before. If I were running a one-shot, I might take only one or two characteristics from the PC. For the rest, I would use randomly generated words or characteristics from Seventh Sanctum or a random-word generator that I found using Google. That way I would have more variety in the cast of characters, but all of them could act as a foil for the PC. On second thought, that might be nice for generating one-shot or two-shot NPCs, as well: maybe everyone in the town plays off of one or two characteristics, highlighting those issues for that part of the campaign. (If a PC is loyal, then they encounter person after person who makes them question their loyalty. Some of them are loyal, all for different reasons. Others are disloyal, all for different reasons. The intention is to make the character ask: are the loyal people following others for good reasons, or are they ignoring major flaws? If they are ignoring major problems, is that loyalty still a good thing? At what point does questioning people turn into disloyalty? Are the disloyal people betraying others for a good reason? And so on. Obviously this kind of thing depends on the player and the game, but the inversion principle would be really interesting to try here. :) ) Ooo, that could make for some interesting one-shot games, too... I’m also finding that the inversion principle works best when I don’t use the same character all the time. The source material is too limited, as you mentioned before.

If I were running a one-shot, I might take only one or two characteristics from the PC. For the rest, I would use randomly generated words or characteristics from Seventh Sanctum or a random-word generator that I found using Google. That way I would have more variety in the cast of characters, but all of them could act as a foil for the PC.

On second thought, that might be nice for generating one-shot or two-shot NPCs, as well: maybe everyone in the town plays off of one or two characteristics, highlighting those issues for that part of the campaign.

(If a PC is loyal, then they encounter person after person who makes them question their loyalty. Some of them are loyal, all for different reasons. Others are disloyal, all for different reasons. The intention is to make the character ask: are the loyal people following others for good reasons, or are they ignoring major flaws? If they are ignoring major problems, is that loyalty still a good thing? At what point does questioning people turn into disloyalty? Are the disloyal people betraying others for a good reason? And so on. Obviously this kind of thing depends on the player and the game, but the inversion principle would be really interesting to try here. :) )

Ooo, that could make for some interesting one-shot games, too…

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