I am considering setting up a semi-casual zombie-apocalypse game in which the player's characters will be based on "normal" people. [Rather than heroic characters.] This is not a game that I expect all the characters to make it through. What kind of zombie movie lets all of the main characters live through it? [Except Zombieland...]
That being said, I'm not sure that I want the players to get terribly invested in their characters, as they may end up getting eaten by an undead hoard... this leaves me with two options:
- Pregenerate a stack of characters
- Design a character randomizer that has the player roll for character background, hobbies, etc [which translate to base attributes, bonuses to base attributes, skills, and starting equipment] and then ask the player to flesh out the character with limited skill points
Which is more effective, the pregenerated characters, or the randomized characters?
BTW, I am thinking about doing this in Savage Worlds or a D20 system
EDIT - I should probably add a bit more information about what I was thinking for a randomizer.... The algorithm I have in mind goes something like this:
- Player rolls a D20 to determine profession
- Player rolls a D6 to determine # of hobbies, followed by D20 to determine what the hobbies are
- Player rolls a D6 to determine # of flaws, followed by a D20 to determine what flaws the character has
The "profession" would provide the base attributes and skills for the character. The "hobbies" would provide bonuses to attributes, skills, starting equipment... and possibly add feats. The "flaws" would provide hindrances... and possibly skills. The player would then get a limited # of skill points to use to round out the character. The goal is to make the player a bit more invested in the character, while keeping character creation down to 10 minutes or less.