A pre-made character is a role you're meant to play - Like a character for an actor in a movie. Some people see this as a challenge and will jump at the chance to flesh out that role.
They can help people try the game without requiring learning anything other than the basics of how the game is played (i.e. you say what your character does, I tell you how those actions work out, sometimes with dice deciding the details) before hand. So they can reduce the perceived barriers to enjoying the game (like board games that have quick-start rules so you don't have to study a rule book for a prolonged period of time before ever actually playing the game).
They can also ensure that the characters chosen by the players have the capabilities required to succeed at the adventure to be played. This can also be achieved by letting the players make their own characters and telling them what they'll need to make sure they can do as a party... but some might consider that "spoilers" and prefer to achieve the goal without overt communication of why the characters have a particular element.
They can be used as a challenge, as subsistcyber has pointed out. Though I don't condone using premade characters as a forced challenge. A player should only be playing a character they didn't build if it is by their choice, or by necessity of a particular even (i.e. when limited time to play means choosing A) let players build their own characters and lose session time while they are doing it, or B) players pick from premade assortment of characters and get to put all their limited playtime into actually playing).
They can also be used to facilitate various sorts of gaming event being more welcoming. Such as running a high-level game session in a hobby store as a special event, and having a stack of premade characters of appropriate nature in case anyone shows up to the event but hasn't found the time to make their own character to bring along (which even then, a premade character can be sure to not have any surprises for the DM that made it, where a character someone built on their own might have errors or unexpected interpretations of the rules).
And last, but not least, if the campaign being run is particularly high-risk, a premade character assortment waiting to be used if anyone's character should die and not be able to return to life, to get the player of the deceased character back into the game as quickly as possible.
I'm running Lost Mine of Phandelver for a set of completely new players. I gave them the chance to use the pregenerated characters from the Starter Set and they jumped on it. They have enough to learn without the stress of trying to make their own characters. I also insisted one of them choose the cleric, which has already saved a couple of lives. When the module is done, I'll give them the choice of continuing to play those characters or building new level 5 characters.
Pre-gens are really useful for new players, as has been touched on by a few others, but it is also great for con games. As much as it would be great to always make your own character in a convention where you only have a 4 hour slot you don't want to be spending an hour of that time leading a bunch of people through character generation. In this situation I'm all for it and I would expect to be given a pre-gen when I say down at the table.
I agree with you for campaigns or games where the players know the system. I don't feel detached from a pre-gen necessarily, but it's a completely different thing to build a character from nothing and then try to lead them though the world, shaping who they are from nothing. You also then get control of how they change and grow, which I feel means more if you designed how they were in the first place.
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He who stumbles around in darkness with a stick is blind,
As a DM/GM, I have always preferred pushing DM-designed characters that fit my campaign perfectly. In Shadowrun, we refer to these as Prime Runners (sometimes Archetypes, which are the baselines). Players are encouraged to design multiple characters while we play with the pre-made ones -- and to bring them into the campaign when they are ready.
I think the system it too-complex to not provide pre-made options. You could have a player just make a simple character, with no bells or whistles -- no complexity, no dynamics. It's easier to kill off a pre-made without anyone crying over it (or have one mysterious disappear to return later, or die and be reincarnated or resurrected later). Thus, this encourages players to put a lot into their designs -- thinking more mid-term and long-term. If a DM designs an insanely-powerful starting set of pre-made character options, then the onus is on the players to do even better. This applies to mechanics as well as role playing / fit.
Perhaps I have had too-many players half*ss their builds too-many times, but this is my logical explanation. I like the other comments in this thread where the pre-mades are like characters in a script -- and method actors will add their own style and panache to their role(s). Actors aren't always the best writers, but we need to allow them to influence the end product and go off-the script if we want to put on a good show.
5e could use more archetyping, i.e., more baselines. Imagine a party filled with the Quick Builds from PHB. Yawn city! Even the pre-generated party for LMoP, CoS, ToA surrogates, and the other modules are relatively-weak and uninteresting. My favorite so far was the Arcana Cleric. The Grung Rogue also caused quite a stir because it was officially AL-legal but not really AL-legal. Stick to the rules, but come up with better pre-mades, please, Wizards!
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Im asking this because i want to know how other people feel about pre made chacharacters.
I feel not makeing your own char makes it feel like its not really your char, its just a guy/girl that your controling.
But that is just my opinion.
What do you guys think?
Current game- Pelegos: Singularity
Game world- Thad'thra, homebrew
Role- DM
Players- Maro: Light Cleric, Rivqah: Feind Warlock, Kortek: Artillerist Artificer
Plot: Uncover a conspiracy and truth behind the Dragon, Blasphemy, and the light of the kingdom that was stollen. Drenching Baranara into shadow.
A lot of people see it as a challenge.
A pre-made character is a role you're meant to play - Like a character for an actor in a movie. Some people see this as a challenge and will jump at the chance to flesh out that role.
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Pre-made characters are very useful.
They can help people try the game without requiring learning anything other than the basics of how the game is played (i.e. you say what your character does, I tell you how those actions work out, sometimes with dice deciding the details) before hand. So they can reduce the perceived barriers to enjoying the game (like board games that have quick-start rules so you don't have to study a rule book for a prolonged period of time before ever actually playing the game).
They can also ensure that the characters chosen by the players have the capabilities required to succeed at the adventure to be played. This can also be achieved by letting the players make their own characters and telling them what they'll need to make sure they can do as a party... but some might consider that "spoilers" and prefer to achieve the goal without overt communication of why the characters have a particular element.
They can be used as a challenge, as subsistcyber has pointed out. Though I don't condone using premade characters as a forced challenge. A player should only be playing a character they didn't build if it is by their choice, or by necessity of a particular even (i.e. when limited time to play means choosing A) let players build their own characters and lose session time while they are doing it, or B) players pick from premade assortment of characters and get to put all their limited playtime into actually playing).
They can also be used to facilitate various sorts of gaming event being more welcoming. Such as running a high-level game session in a hobby store as a special event, and having a stack of premade characters of appropriate nature in case anyone shows up to the event but hasn't found the time to make their own character to bring along (which even then, a premade character can be sure to not have any surprises for the DM that made it, where a character someone built on their own might have errors or unexpected interpretations of the rules).
And last, but not least, if the campaign being run is particularly high-risk, a premade character assortment waiting to be used if anyone's character should die and not be able to return to life, to get the player of the deceased character back into the game as quickly as possible.
I'm running Lost Mine of Phandelver for a set of completely new players. I gave them the chance to use the pregenerated characters from the Starter Set and they jumped on it. They have enough to learn without the stress of trying to make their own characters. I also insisted one of them choose the cleric, which has already saved a couple of lives. When the module is done, I'll give them the choice of continuing to play those characters or building new level 5 characters.
Pre-gens are really useful for new players, as has been touched on by a few others, but it is also great for con games. As much as it would be great to always make your own character in a convention where you only have a 4 hour slot you don't want to be spending an hour of that time leading a bunch of people through character generation. In this situation I'm all for it and I would expect to be given a pre-gen when I say down at the table.
I agree with you for campaigns or games where the players know the system. I don't feel detached from a pre-gen necessarily, but it's a completely different thing to build a character from nothing and then try to lead them though the world, shaping who they are from nothing. You also then get control of how they change and grow, which I feel means more if you designed how they were in the first place.
He who stumbles around in darkness with a stick is blind,
He who sticks out in darkness is... luminescent
- Brother Silence (who is not an elf)
I see.
Pe made char. Can be good.
Current game- Pelegos: Singularity
Game world- Thad'thra, homebrew
Role- DM
Players- Maro: Light Cleric, Rivqah: Feind Warlock, Kortek: Artillerist Artificer
Plot: Uncover a conspiracy and truth behind the Dragon, Blasphemy, and the light of the kingdom that was stollen. Drenching Baranara into shadow.
As a DM/GM, I have always preferred pushing DM-designed characters that fit my campaign perfectly. In Shadowrun, we refer to these as Prime Runners (sometimes Archetypes, which are the baselines). Players are encouraged to design multiple characters while we play with the pre-made ones -- and to bring them into the campaign when they are ready.
I think the system it too-complex to not provide pre-made options. You could have a player just make a simple character, with no bells or whistles -- no complexity, no dynamics. It's easier to kill off a pre-made without anyone crying over it (or have one mysterious disappear to return later, or die and be reincarnated or resurrected later). Thus, this encourages players to put a lot into their designs -- thinking more mid-term and long-term. If a DM designs an insanely-powerful starting set of pre-made character options, then the onus is on the players to do even better. This applies to mechanics as well as role playing / fit.
Perhaps I have had too-many players half*ss their builds too-many times, but this is my logical explanation. I like the other comments in this thread where the pre-mades are like characters in a script -- and method actors will add their own style and panache to their role(s). Actors aren't always the best writers, but we need to allow them to influence the end product and go off-the script if we want to put on a good show.
5e could use more archetyping, i.e., more baselines. Imagine a party filled with the Quick Builds from PHB. Yawn city! Even the pre-generated party for LMoP, CoS, ToA surrogates, and the other modules are relatively-weak and uninteresting. My favorite so far was the Arcana Cleric. The Grung Rogue also caused quite a stir because it was officially AL-legal but not really AL-legal. Stick to the rules, but come up with better pre-mades, please, Wizards!