UAD&D Character creation: Part one: The Character Concept

It's not uncommon in variations of Dungeons and Dragons to roll the character's statistics FIRST, then try to figure out what the character can be, based on those statistics.

In UAD&D, we start instead with a character concept: A name (often,) a race, a general set of visual information (tall, short, fat, thin, hair color, eye color, distinguishing marks,) a class, a disposition, a brief description, an alignment and physical handedness. These should be decided before any decision on class is made.

If you're trying to cram this all onto a one- or two-page character sheet, this can be intense. This is one reason I use a 4 page sheet: The information you need all the time on the 1st and 4th sheet (the front and back if you staple it together) and the information you use much more rarely (but is important, especially to the DM) on the 2nd and third sheet (or the inside.) The other good way to do this is to have both a character sheet (one page) and a character file (as many as you need) with all of the information your character needs.

On our character sheet, the character concept box looks like this: At the start of the campaign or when rolling characters, the DM should be open with the players as to what will and will not work. For example, in my campaign world, there are four monstrous races and two fey races, each with very particular problems. If, for example, I foresee the party as spending a lot of time in a city that is 80% human, with the rest of the people mostly elves and half-elves, I might limit the available races of the campaign to elves, half-elves, humans and whatever else is in the city. While it might seem cool to play something no one has seen before, as the DM, I have to balance the character concept with the playability of the game. When the character can't buy armor or weapons, it affects playability. If the player really insists, I may allow the problematic concept nonetheless, but the player will know he's walking into a minefield. Examples of recent things I have not allowed were an assassin in a party which already included a paladin, a paladin in a party which was going to be doing a lot of bad things and an ogre in a setting where humans were going to have a hard time squeezing into the tunnels.

If you look at the first line of the box above, you have something that is the player's decision alone...the name. Allow players to use whatever name they want...if they give a dwarf an elven name, that's their decision. If your player cannot come up with a name, let them skip it, and feel free to give them a terrible name if they won't. ONLY the second and seventh line (Race/Class/Level) and (Disposition/Religion/Alignment) should be informed by the DM. Height/Weight and Age can be filled in one of two ways, with the player giving an adjective (tall, thin, young) or with a number based on data about the character races. I use the charts below:

Average Starting Age of Fantasy Races, and other age data (in years)
Race:	Starting Age		+Per level	Age of Majority	Elderly	Max
	Base Age	Variable
Changeling	150	6d6	5	175	475	975
Dwarf- default	40	5d6	2.5	60	250	450
Elf-default	100	5d6	5	120	375	550
Elf-Drow, Mist	75	5d6	5	100	250	400
Elf-Grey	120	5d6	5	200	800	2000
Fey/Sidhe	150	8d6	5	300	900	2100
Gnome-default	60	3d12	3	75	250	500
Half-Elf-default	15	1d6	1.5	16/25*	130	200
Half-Elf-Grey	15	1d6	2	16/30*	175	300
Half-Giant	15	1d4	1.5	16	80	110
Half-Orc	15	1d4	1	16	75	120
Halfling-default	20	3d4	2	25	111	200
Halfling-stout	20	3d4	2	25	140	210
Halfling-Tallfellow	25	3d4	3	30	180	300
Human	15	1d4	1	16	75	120
Ogre	40	5d6	2.5	60	250	450
Wolfen	15	1d6	2	18	175	300
Zandar	75	5d6	5	80	250	400
*The first number is in human cultures, the second if raised by elves.

Average Weight of Typical Fantasy Races (in pounds)
Race:	Base Weight by Gender:		Modifiers by Body Type:
	Male	Female	Average	Lean	Fat or Muscled
Changeling	90	70	3d10	1d6	6d10
Dwarf-Hill, default	130	105	4d10	2d10	5d20
Dwarf-Derro	110	95	4d10	2d10	5d20
Dwarf-Mountain	140	115	4d10	2d10	5d20
Elf-High, default	90	70	3d10	1d6	6d10
Elf-Grey, Drow	80	60	2d10	1d6	4d10
Elf-Mist	100	80	2d10	1d6	4d10
Fey/Sidhe	120	100	3d10	1d6	6d10
Gnome-default	72	68	5d4	2d4	5d6
Gnome-forest	65	58	3d4	1d4	4d6
Half-Elf-default	110	85	3d12	2d8	3d20
Half-Elf-Grey, Drow	104	79	3d12	2d8	3d20
Half-Giant	200	180	3d8	2d4	6d6
Half-Orc	140	120	6d10	4d10-4	8d10+5
Halfling-default	52	48	5d4	3d4-3	6d4+6
Halfling-stout	55	50	5d4	3d4-3	6d4+6
Halfling-Tallfellow	60	55	5d4	3d4-3	6d4+6
Human	140	100	6d10	4d10-4	7d10+5
Ogre	200	180	3d8	2d4	6d6
Wolfen	140	160	7d10	4d10-4	8d10+5
Zandar	140	100	6d10	4d10-4	7d10+5

Size class, hair, skin and eye color should all be informed by the race choices. I keep phenotype charts for each race in my core rules but players can deviate from them as they wish, although if their background information doesn't support why they are an elf with blue hair, the DM should feel free to give them a terrible consequence. I only recommend rolling on such charts for NPCs.

Disposition, similarly, should be the player's choice. If they absolutely cannot decide if their character is an optimist or a pessimist, a whore or a prude, violent or a pacifist, I allow my players to roll on a random chart to determine disposition. Usually a player has an idea about disposition, and will roll repeatedly, until they get a disposition that matches the character concept they ALREADY have. I use a similar table for distinguishing marks for those who can't come up with anything.

The DM's job with character concept is to start to weave a story. Can these characters work together, can they work in the world you're in? Can they have fun?

In the next installment of Character Creation I'll show how you go from Character Concept to Ability scores...stay tuned.

And, of course, if you're one of my players, remember that our own core rules are available from me on CD, as a .doc or as a .pdf. The current one is only mostly edited, and finding errors may bring extra XP.