Maybe it's the fact that insomnia struck again, but I had an idea this morning.

What if...

Someone ran a game with the premise of throwing players outside their respective character picking comfort zone?

This would involve

1) Choosing a neutral system (I'd vote Pathfinder or 2e, but that's just me. Maybe something more rules-lite?)
2) Randomizing who gets what type of character
3) Having a crazy blast

In my idea, the PCs are thrown into a world that doesn't take itself too seriously. No mass of masterminds or hordes of hobgoblins. NO! The plot would be fast and loose with self-referential humor, genre tropes a-plenty, and generally fun and mayhem ensue hand in hand.

But I dunno, just a thought. Anyone tried something like this before? Thoughts in general?

I've played a few games where the players (I GMed in two cases) had no idea even of the rules of the system. They basically gave a character description and appearance, and were handed everything else.

It was quite the blast.

I once tried to run a game where the controlling Deities were Fate and Destiny. Each PC had a "destiny" they had to stick to or suffer penalties for going against the will of the cosmos. This was accomplished by me rolling on a table of 100 Random PrCs, the character had to take a level in that PrC by level 10 if possible, this of course forced players into general roles they may not have normally chosen themselves.

Those actually sound like a blast! I'd love to give those a try sometime.

This idea though, is simpler. Basing the random thingies on races, classes, and a background, you'd pretty much make three dice rolls and have a basic character. Here's what I came up with:

a d4 roll for background, a d6 for race, and a d8 for class. The class and race are pretty self-explanatory, but the background gives you a starting point for your character as well as determining the amount of starting gold.

I'm basing most of the other crunchies off AD&D 2e, though I'm thinking of streamlining it. It comes down to making it accessible for newbies and a challege for vets. I'm kicking around some other things, but that's the gist of what I came up with.

If you have access to it, the 3.5 D&D Dungeon Master's Guide has those random tables: race, class, and alignment -- but no background tables. Although it does have "100 personality traits" %d table too.

Hey thanks! I managed to snag one fairly recently, but haven't had the time to look over it. I'll give it a look-see.

This sounds good and it looks like it would make character generation simple and take that aspect out of my hands.

If you start this up and would be willing to give me another try then I would give it a go. I think it would be challenging to play like this.

You'd be more than welcome.

I'm probably going to use either 2e or the (gosh, I love free stuff!) Microlite 20 rules. Got most of it worked out, so I can probably get an adventure worked up. Keep at me about it, I tend to forget things.

I am Definitely interested Keep me updated!!

So got that adventure worked up?

So when do we make the rolls to make our characters? Do we do that in the Dragon Chat? I think I seen a die roller in there. Just a thought.

Can we at least request that we play the sex or our choice? I don't think I be much good playing a female character. I don't have any practice in that area and like most men I just cant figure them out!

Alright, i've got the bare bones of an adventure worked up, but i kinda want to officially gauge interest while i flesh it out a bit.

Who's interested? We'd be using Microlite20 (free, and basically stripped down old school d&d), and 4 random parts to character generation - race, class, your background, and a quirk are randomized.

The setting...well in theory it's sort of a parody of traditional D&D, but i can take it in a more traditional direction if that's the consensus.

I think I made it clear above that I am still interested but for the record. Count me in!

I will see what I can dig up about this Microlite20.

Is the character generation still going to be done by die roll? I think it a challenge to play a character much like real life has been thrust upon you and you just have to deal with it. Just my thoughts!

Cant wait!

Jack

Microlite uses 4d6, drop lowest, but I was thinking 2d6+6 to make it a little more even.

I'm interested.

How many people do you want in this adventure? So far I only see two of us that have committed to it.

Come on people we need more volunteers