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 Post subject: How to talk about character mechanical builds
PostPosted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 4:00 pm 

Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 8:36 am
Posts: 1554
Man this is a difficult question, but what is the simplest and easiest to read and understand way to talk about how we built our characters? These characters are so complicated that its really easy to miss rules (or misunderstand rules).

So the idea would be to simplify the (spreadsheet/worksheet/thingie) as much as possible to make it easy to fill out and share

I'm gonna play around with a Google doc solution, but im all ears on ideas that other people might have

--Josh

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Oswald val'Inares V, The Seeker of the Val'Inares
Harvester Lord of the Eastern Fields of Iowa


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 Post subject: Re: How to talk about character mechanical builds
PostPosted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 4:25 pm 

Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 8:36 am
Posts: 1554
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ar535o9NVzg9dExrbjR2ZlMxOHN3dGF3VnZfc1Fjb2c&usp=sharing

I wonder if folks give that a try, if that might be acceptable?

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--Josh Elliott
Oswald val'Inares V, The Seeker of the Val'Inares
Harvester Lord of the Eastern Fields of Iowa


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 Post subject: Re: How to talk about character mechanical builds
PostPosted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 8:44 pm 
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Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 1:06 am
Posts: 2109
Location: Portland OR
Hi Josh,

I'm not entirely sure where you are going with this. I haven't looked at the documents yet, but it seems to me that characters are essentially defined (mechanically) by their skill ranks and talents. Maybe an attribute becomes important by itself (...saying I have 2 Cha, or I have a 16 Quickness both mean something). But I think just about everything else that would normally be "part of a build" in other systems (archetypes, backgrounds, paths etc) instead under A:RPG just impacts what you rank up and what talents you take.

So to to describe "your build" it seems to me you should list the 2-6 key skills that are most important in defining the core of what your PC does along with the key relevant talents.

Ex: Saying that your Tier II PC has 9 ranks in Arcanum Meditation, Marksmanship, Perception, Athletics & Larceny w/ the talents ASC II, Weapon Mastery II (Flintlocks), Acrobatics & Tomb Raider might imply that you took the expert archetype, but regardless it means you shoot guns & cast spells at combat grade and probably crawl into and out of tombs looking for ancient valuables. Are you an Awakened Scion turned Sword Sage? Maybe important for RP purposes but I don't see how mechanically it was any different than if you were Spontaneously Awakened and an Archaeologist. Either way its the skills and talents that matter from the mechanical end.

I guess I'm asking if the exact build you took to get there important in some way I'm not seeing?

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Eric Gorman

AKA Ambassador Tukufu, man of letters, tomb raider and Master Sword Sage
. . . and Sir Szymon val'Holryn, Order of the Phoenix
Formerly Sir Jaeger val'Holryn. Weilder of the Holy Avenger: Thonanos. Gave his soul to help free King Noen


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 Post subject: Re: How to talk about character mechanical builds
PostPosted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 9:50 pm 
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Joined: Mon Oct 07, 2013 8:14 am
Posts: 115
I believe Mr. Bellando made an excel sheet to build a character that was listed on the player resources on the old forums.

I took it a year or so ago and tweaked it to suit my needs for my character. It's really helped me iron out some misconceptions (I think) about rules things for my character build and planning out where I hope to go with him the future.

Maybe he'd be able to share it again (if it was John!).

Thanks,
Rick Brill

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~ Decios Canius val'Dellenov of Balantica, Spear Merchant
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~ Sestia Gracchi, of Grand Coryan


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 Post subject: Re: How to talk about character mechanical builds
PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 7:01 am 
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Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 10:40 am
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I linked the Excel Sheet, but it wasn't me who created it. I wish we had access to some of those old Player Created Artifacts :)

John

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- John Bellando

Kelb'Bakari Masalio, Dark-kin Altherian Corsair, Gentleman Archaeologist, and Wandering Bard
"The highest compliment an Altherian can pay you is to shoot you with his flintlock. It means you were worth the expense."


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 Post subject: Re: How to talk about character mechanical builds
PostPosted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 8:36 am 

Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 8:36 am
Posts: 1554
Eric G
Yes sometimes the exact build to get there matters... sometimes...

I had to have someone explain to me the whole Expert/ Adaptable/ Prestidigitation end run around the rules that makes a whole section of characters possible, and just looking at a character sheet I don't think would ever explain that.

also importantly it provides a visibility, "Hey this is the correct order of steps", people reading that can see how someone else did it, and it then becomes easier for them to read and understand. and people that post characters with mistakes (everyone makes honest mistakes!)
Some examples:
-I took the Quick talent on a character once (it has no requirement listed in the table), and then in the middle of a game i realized I didn't have the requisite stat to use that talent.
-Ive seen mistakes where people didn't realize you are limited to a max of 4 ranks in something at character creation (eg A Martial, Human, Peasant from Almeric, coul already have 4 points in Heal, and thus could not chose to put a 5th in for their distributed points)
- There was a group of people at origins last year that had misread/misunderstood the point distribution rules in step 7 and had more points in things than they should have, there was some furious character adjustments that afternoon.

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--Josh Elliott
Oswald val'Inares V, The Seeker of the Val'Inares
Harvester Lord of the Eastern Fields of Iowa


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 Post subject: Re: How to talk about character mechanical builds
PostPosted: Sat Oct 26, 2013 2:58 am 
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Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 1:06 am
Posts: 2109
Location: Portland OR
Ah ha! That makes sense. You are not explaining succinctly what a character does. You are tracking the building blocks. I can completely relate. Tukufu started out as an Arcane Archetype until someone pointed out to me that you can't use the Talent Warrior Mage to add ranks to Marksmanship. D'Oh. Since being a Trigger Mage was a core part of what I wanted to do it was imperative to me to have someone who both shot and cast. I had to rebuild him as an expert.

I track the advancements I make on a word document for my main 2 PCs so I can "deconstruct" the steps if I ever need to review something.

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Eric Gorman

AKA Ambassador Tukufu, man of letters, tomb raider and Master Sword Sage
. . . and Sir Szymon val'Holryn, Order of the Phoenix
Formerly Sir Jaeger val'Holryn. Weilder of the Holy Avenger: Thonanos. Gave his soul to help free King Noen


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 Post subject: Re: How to talk about character mechanical builds
PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 12:20 pm 

Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 5:49 pm
Posts: 12
Late to the reply, I know, but figured I'd weigh in.

I have my players use the quick reference sheets in the back of the Codex of Heroes, simplifies the build process for new characters, and then I just have them track what advancements they choose at each rank up (ex, 1.2 - Universal + skill, 1.3 - Martial Combat Talents [talent x, talent y], etc). Makes it easy to go back and see how it all fits together.


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 Post subject: Re: How to talk about character mechanical builds
PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 12:33 pm 

Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 8:36 am
Posts: 1554
like these sheets?

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--Josh Elliott
Oswald val'Inares V, The Seeker of the Val'Inares
Harvester Lord of the Eastern Fields of Iowa


Last edited by SamhainIA on Thu Nov 14, 2013 12:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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 Post subject: Re: How to talk about character mechanical builds
PostPosted: Thu Nov 14, 2013 12:36 pm 

Joined: Fri Sep 27, 2013 5:49 pm
Posts: 12
Yup. For some reason links are showing the same color as normal text for me, didn't realize there were links there at first and kept waiting for something else to load on the page >.<


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