@Jennkryst said in Searching for Star Wars RPI:
I feel chargen would be super easy if you don't code in all the prerequisites... just let the players fill everything in manually, and then staff combs it for accuracy after. It's not shadowrun or rifts, here.
This is a 100% valid way to do it. This is how we did it in WoD, and some people still do. There is nothing wrong with it, the question is always where to put the bulk of the work. On players? On staff? On code?
In my [incoherent mumbling] years of coding chargens, I can follow a fairly steady path of that. Game opens, players join, staff discovers that they have to either focus on players or on administration, staff asks code to take work off their plate.
This is the way it should go, IMO. But then I see this happening:
Staff takes on extra responsibilities via house rules, mini-games, and character actions; staff discovers that they have to either focus on players or on administration; staff asks code to take work off their plate. Repeat.
I can't blame anyone for doing this. People have ideas, people want their ideas to be fun and cool and add to the game. Since this is a hobby, people aren't thinking, "I'd better do some kind of analysis to see how this would affect things including my own time and the time of those around me."
I can't blame anyone for doing this.
But this is why occasionally, someone sits down and says, "You know, I know this. Let me create, from scratch, a system that will answer some of the most common problems that will come up if we get even moderately popular."
Many, many thanks and adorations to staff who are willing to deal with the problems of imperfect systems as they come up, and calm the player down when it doesn't give them precisely what was promised to them. Just as many thanks to the players who are okay with this.