The Pregenerated Characters Simply Don't Add Up

[Heather]

I can't be the only one who has noticed this, but I've searched the forum and haven't found anything about it.

The pre-generated characters at the back of the book are completely out of whack. Not just by a couple of points, but by tons. They don't even remotely follow the character generation rules. For someone trying to play for the first time, it's really hard to get a grip on what a normally-created character should be able to do because the pre-gens are so outrageous. They're almost all completely off points-wise, but here are a couple of examples.

Normal Characters - 24 Character Points, 18 Skill Points, 12 Story Points. Some leftover CP's can be used for skills - fine.

Amy Pond:

Attributes: 19 points. So far so good.

Traits: 2 points as follows:

Attractive +1

Brave +1

Empathic +1

Indomitable +2

Run for your Life! +1

Argumentative -1

Distinctive -1

Impulsive -1

Insatiable Curiosity -1

Again, so far so good. We have 3 points left over that can be used for extra skills. Nice. But then...

Skills: 11 points. What?? Poor Amy doesn't even get the normal 18 Skill Points allowed for a character, much less able to use up the 3 remaining points from her Attributes and Traits. She has the regulation 12 Story Points, but overall her character is underpowered by NINE points (7 from Skills, 2 from Character Points). So.. .clearly, don't play the Amy pre-gen character unless you want to suck at everything.

Most the characters, however, are vastly overpowered. Let's take just one example.

Sarah Jane Smith:

Attributes: 20 points. So far so good.

Traits: 6 points as follows:

Boffin +2

Brave +1

Face in the Crowd +1

Friends (UNIT) +2

Technically Adept +1

Insatiable Curiosity -1

It also lists Gadget, but that should use Story Points (although SJS has the full complement of 12 Story Points, so apparently she got her Gadgets for free.)

So far Sarah Jane is overspent by 2 Character Points, before we even worry about the apparently free Gadget. Then we check her skills. This is where it goes completely bonkers.

Skills: 31 points. Out of 18. So she's already overspent 2 Character Points and got 2 free Gadgets (sonic lipstick and wrist scanner), and now she's got an extra 13 - yes, THIRTEEN - points in her skills.

WHY???

Why would they create pre-gens that so blatantly ignore their own character creation rules?

[Stormcrow]

Why would they create pre-gens that so blatantly ignore their own character creation rules?

But they didn't create them; they come from the show.

The TV characters aren't meant to be examples of characters created by the system; they represent the authors' interpretation of the TV characters according to the system. The archetype characters represent examples of character-creation.

Although I might argue that they could have reduced some overpowered characters' Story Points, I suppose the numbers were checked during playtesting and found to work.

[Escher]

This is exactly as Stormcrow says: these are not pregenerated characters, but characters from the show written up as they are in the series.

Character creation for players' own original characters are given a very generous starting point to begin from, as they are expected to be leading characters in the drama.

If you want to create a character similar in ability to one already existing on the show, do the point breakdown (as you already have done) and simply use that as a starting point for your own character.

To give you some idea of the power level, here's a Time Lady starting character I recently made for my partner, based purely on the starting point totals

(24 Character Points, 18 Skill Points, 12 Story Points). The Time Traveller's Companion was also used to give her an Ancient TARDIS (free, no cost).

Power-wise, she doesn't even equal the First Doctor but she's very capable and a perfect starting hero.

[Heather]

But the whole point of having pre-generated characters in an RPG is so that you can grab those character sheets and start out a new game with them before having to worry about making your own characters. When the characters are so unbalanced, it completely defeats the purpose of having pre-gen characters.

If they'd at least said something at the start of the section to indicate that the characters weren't meant to be first-level characters (or however character advancement is described in this game, haven't found that bit in the rules yet), then we'd know not to use those as examples of first-level characters. Most RPG's include playable first-level characters as their pre-gens, so that's what I was expecting here.

I'm quite sure if they'd put their minds to it they would have been able to create Sarah Jane or Amy or Rory or anyone else based on the actual starting level numbers while still keeping those elements of the characters that make them special in the show.

[Rassilon]

Apr 21, 2016 19:20:16 GMT Heather said:

But the whole point of having pre-generated characters in an RPG is so that you can grab those character sheets and start out a new game with them before having to worry about making your own characters.

Hello Heather, welcome to the forum.

Those characters you are referring to are not pre-generated characters. They are the official character sheets of a small selection of the show's major and supporting characters. As such, they are not meant to be balanced in any way but are wholly modelled on those characters and their abilities as portrayed in the show.

Just to clear any further confusion that may arise in future if you purchase any of the Doctor Sourcebooks; The Doctors, their friends and companions and any other characters that could potentially be used as playable characters are also not balanced starting characters, but again, are faithfully modelled according to their abilities as portrayed on the show.

You are correct - the game does differ from most other RPGs in regards to starting characters and does encourage you to create your own.

I am sorry there was some confusion.

Best regards,
Admin

[zebaroth]

Apr 21, 2016 17:04:31 GMT Escher said:

This is exactly as Stormcrow says: these are not pregenerated characters, but characters from the show written up as they are in the series.

Character creation for players' own original characters are given a very generous starting point to begin from, as they are expected to be leading characters in the drama.

If you want to create a character similar in ability to one already existing on the show, do the point breakdown (as you already have done) and simply use that as a starting point for your own character.

To give you some idea of the power level, here's a Time Lady starting character I recently made for my partner, based purely on the starting point totals

(24 Character Points, 18 Skill Points, 12 Story Points). The Time Traveller's Companion was also used to give her an Ancient TARDIS (free, no cost).

Power-wise, she doesn't even equal the First Doctor but she's very capable and a perfect starting hero.

nice time lady saved her to my hdd

[Marnal]

I do think it would have been nice if they had altered the number of Story Points the Companions and Doctors have so that each set of companions is play balanced with their Doctor.

Of course that means that later Doctors [and thus later companions] have higher point values - but that seems reasonable to me.

[Stormcrow]

In playing with Doctor and companions, I've never noticed any imbalance. The Doctor tends to run out of Story Points quickly, while the companions rely on them for much longer.

[senko]

I tend to view them less as PC's and more as powerful NPC's who can help/hinder you. They're not meant to be an example of character creation so much as characters you can have show up and say "I think its a TARDIS but its not the doctors . . ." insert storyline and first major arc where they find the time lord/gain access.