Starting Out in ZOP
Character Creation and other Considerations
In order to play a game, we usually need to make characters. The system from which I am deriving ZOP is no different. However, the procedure used obfuscates some elements of the process behind a game of twenty questions. Twenty is a lot and we already know we are removing some from consideration. Let's say that nine is a sacred number among the culture in question and create nine questions instead of twenty. We'll partially use this to reduce the power level of our starting characters, and start thinking about separating game elements from the character sheet and placing them on the settlement map.
Baseline Comparison
A starting character in our base system is relatively quantifiable. Based on narrative and mechanical choices they gain 5 increases to their ring (but cannot go above 3). They have between nine and eleven ranks in skills (likewise limited to 3). They have two or three each of advantages and disadvantages. They have social statistics (honor, glory, and status) in a broad range from 27 to 60. Those will need some kind of additional consideration. The have a two to five techniques depending on whether or not they do magic (mostly) and a school special ability.
We want our starting characters to be somewhat depowered, moving some things from the character sheets onto the settlement map. Techniques (the games modular powers that include both spells, rituals, martial techniques and social tricks) are extremely easy to move over. Rings and skills can be moved over, at least in part. But advantages and disadvantages as well as social statistics, seem rather tied to the individual (at least for the start). We also want to make sure to tie the characters to the setting somewhat with these nine questions, so we want to pick smartly. Once we know what the "nine questions" produce, we can do the straightfoward comparison needed to figure out how much the starting settlement map should provide.
Nine Questions
Legend of the Five Rings is partially useful because it heavily locates characters in the setting, even from the jump. We'll probably need to do some thinking about the setting but we can take their twenty questions, combine a few, remove a lot, and get down to nine crucial questions.
First, what family does your character belong to? The post about the base idea of the setting covers the ten1 families currently. This selection gives the characters +1 to a ring and +1 to two skills. It also sets their starting status.
Second, where did you live when your people were forced from their home? This can tie into external details about the setting and quite easily ties in to packages of skills based on where they have been living. We can also tie the "passion" advantage in here.
Third and fourth, we'll want questions to establish starting glory and honor2. These will ideally also do some of the lifting for providing additional elements. Honor is often tied to certain social roles, so we could make this a place to choose from packages of skills. Glory is easily tied into advantages and disadvantages.
Fifth, we can ask what the character is known for in their family. I could see this providing a place to identify an advantage and a free choice of ring. We could also tweak this to be who you are closest to in your family, with some character creation choices tied to that choice.
Sixth and seventh, we should establish the characters disadvantages - probably setting up the anxieties and adversities they face. These are broad enough that if we are including them they may need to be pretty free form.
Question eight and nine, let's define our core duty to our community and our heart's desire. These could be tied to other elements but it's okay if they are totally freeform. Maybe for a given campaign it would make sense to set a specific duty for all characters like "recover the lost relics of the people".
At the end of the process I'd like each character to have three increases to rings, seven ranks in skills, two advantages, two disadvantages, a status, a glory, and an honor score as well as a decent understanding of who the character is. If nine is insufficient to that we can rethink things, but I am going to provide the current version here!
What Next
Notably these characters have lower rings than starting L5R characters normally do, no equipment, fewer skills and no techniques. That is because those things can all be provided by our starting settlement, which means our next step is to actually start engaging with what that system looks like.
Therefore, my next subject will be a reflection on tile-laying and settlement building. It will conclude with a draft of an initial concept for testing of the system.
We want our starting characters to be somewhat depowered, moving some things from the character sheets onto the settlement map. Techniques (the games modular powers that include both spells, rituals, martial techniques and social tricks) are extremely easy to move over. Rings and skills can be moved over, at least in part. But advantages and disadvantages as well as social statistics, seem rather tied to the individual (at least for the start). We also want to make sure to tie the characters to the setting somewhat with these nine questions, so we want to pick smartly. Once we know what the "nine questions" produce, we can do the straightfoward comparison needed to figure out how much the starting settlement map should provide.
Second, where did you live when your people were forced from their home? This can tie into external details about the setting and quite easily ties in to packages of skills based on where they have been living. We can also tie the "passion" advantage in here.
Fifth, we can ask what the character is known for in their family. I could see this providing a place to identify an advantage and a free choice of ring. We could also tweak this to be who you are closest to in your family, with some character creation choices tied to that choice.
At the end of the process I'd like each character to have three increases to rings, seven ranks in skills, two advantages, two disadvantages, a status, a glory, and an honor score as well as a decent understanding of who the character is. If nine is insufficient to that we can rethink things, but I am going to provide the current version here!
1 Ten's now a good number not just for the symmetry reasons it offers to rings but also because it is our sacred number of nine plus one. One of the families is suggested to be not sacred or somehow set apart and I think that's neat.↩
2 We'll need to rethink honor in this setting, but the three axis of glory, honor and status makes sense to me even once somewhat removed from the context of faux-japan.↩
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