I just want to highlight this point as realy being key. Randomness is awesome and well loved for it's variety, but less well loved for its _disparity_. It is really fun and interesting to take the data presented in a D&D stat roll or Marvel powers selection and weave it into a story. That challenges certain mental muscles in a neat, engaging way. However, that engagement is quickly squashed when I get toast generation and the other guy got the power cosmic. The chargen makes a fun story, but play falls down.
Now, a good GM can fix this by knowing when to call for a reroll, but too many rerolls and you suddenly start wondering about why you're not just picking something from the list, and once you're there, point creation makes a lot of sense.
Reign's random chargen is very satisfying because it generates those elements that you need to weave together, but does so in a way which makes them mechanically equivalent (at least approximately) so that you get the best of both worlds. Similarly, I've had great success with things as simple as tarot readings or randomly generated background elements, words, relationships or the like that the player has to fold into their idea. Heck, I'm working on just such a deck for my upcoming D&D game, and I'm pretty sure it will rock.
All of which is to say, I don't think the idea is as out of vogue as you suggest. It merely has been sanded and polished to reveal the really fun stuff (the engagement in creating a story out of unexpected elements) while shedding the stuff that is just less fun to play (13 int 1 hit point wizards ad such). This is not to say that it's been tapped - there aren't a huge number of games that really use this well. That said, there are supplemental materials like Story Cards (http://storycardsrpg.com/) which can fill the gap, but it's still broadly undiscovered country.
But on a purely practical level, crack open a copy of Reign, grab 11d10 and roll up a character. That's all it takes to see that the magic is still there.
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Date: 2009-01-25 02:29 am (UTC)Now, a good GM can fix this by knowing when to call for a reroll, but too many rerolls and you suddenly start wondering about why you're not just picking something from the list, and once you're there, point creation makes a lot of sense.
Reign's random chargen is very satisfying because it generates those elements that you need to weave together, but does so in a way which makes them mechanically equivalent (at least approximately) so that you get the best of both worlds. Similarly, I've had great success with things as simple as tarot readings or randomly generated background elements, words, relationships or the like that the player has to fold into their idea. Heck, I'm working on just such a deck for my upcoming D&D game, and I'm pretty sure it will rock.
All of which is to say, I don't think the idea is as out of vogue as you suggest. It merely has been sanded and polished to reveal the really fun stuff (the engagement in creating a story out of unexpected elements) while shedding the stuff that is just less fun to play (13 int 1 hit point wizards ad such). This is not to say that it's been tapped - there aren't a huge number of games that really use this well. That said, there are supplemental materials like Story Cards (http://storycardsrpg.com/) which can fill the gap, but it's still broadly undiscovered country.
But on a purely practical level, crack open a copy of Reign, grab 11d10 and roll up a character. That's all it takes to see that the magic is still there.