When I Use Random Character Generation

Zachary is singing the praises of random character generation over on his blog. I thought he was giving that up (the blogging, not the singing. I think Zachary must spend all his time signing about one thing or the other) or at least significantly cutting back. Hasn't happened, at least not to any degree I've noticed. But then again it's a classic to try and pull away from the waste of time that online interactions are only to fail. Sort of like trying to quit smoking, but without most of the health problems at least.

Where was I? Oh yes, random character generation. Personally I don't really like the method.

Or rather, I don't like it for one type of campaign and do for another.

I use random generation for long term campaigns where one would see family lines and multiple generations of characters. Mine are half-sand box and half epic fantasy arc (I've only done this in one setting), and given that players will over the life of the campaign run multiple characters (some of which are children of previous PCs)- a certain amount of random generation of stats and the like makes sense. You just don't always get what you want from the kids (vast understatement that, on the other hand you sometimes get more).

More common these days are concept campaigns because that's what my players are interested in. The one team of runners for Shadowrun. The one Morrow Project team that will either save or lose the future. The re-imagining of the Marvel Universe. And so on.

Concept Campaigns (which last a handful of years in real time for us) really demand concept characters- and thus full control over their creation.

So, partially random for sand box and designed for concept. This split in campaign types explains in a large degree why I use two rpg systems instead of one. It's not the only reason, but a it's a very significant one.