I'm cross-posting this from rpg.net, to get a slightly different perspective from the crowd here.

I'm gearing up for a new series, a science-fantasy swashbuckler adventure thing using a house-ruled version of the Talislanta system. Char-gen is by a simple point-buy system, and I've been spending the last several days helping people with their concepts.

In the process of doing so, I've realized something about how I think char-gen should work and what I want from the process, both as a GM and a player.

And what I want is an Action Figure! Dammit.

Y'see, I remember playing with GI Joes and Transformers (and Star Wars and Tron and He-Man and Sectaurs and oh so many others) as a kid and it occurs to me that I was free-form role-playing back then, and the action figures were my "character sheets", personas I was slipping into and acting out their adventures with. Sure, the plotting sucked, my sense of balance was childish and everything tended to lead to big explosions every couple of minutes (its debatable how much has changed) but I had a really strong sense of character, personality and relevant abilities. When I positioned Snake-Eyes standing over Major Bludd with sword drawn, It didn't occur to me to pretend that Snake-Eyes was trash-talking the evil mercenary he was about to skewer because I knew he wouldn't do that. Likewise, when my friend swung around with a Cobra Rattler jet in hand to save Major Bludd with a bombing run (don't think about it), I knew that Snake-Eyes couldn't shoot the plane down with his uzi, but he could ninja-flip his way to safety, then maybe signal for some Awe-Striker air support.

For the moment ignoring the question of how much of this character identity I was picking up from other media, let me lay out what I think made this so easy.

First, action figures have strong visual distinction. Cobra Commander wears a full mirror mask and an ostentatious crisp blue military uniform. Snake-Eyes is solid black and carries a ton of weapons, at least one a sword. Scarlet has red hair, carries a crossbow and wears freakn' ninja stars. Most basically all the character's looking different makes it easy to tell them apart, but also reinforces the idea of their uniqueness. Also, something about these characters' personalities and abilities is implied by what they look like. Cobra-Commander is imperious and fascist. Snake-Eyes is bad-ass. Scarlet is temperamental but precise.

The toys I played with usually came with short "dossiers" describing the characters. GI Joe dossiers especially presented a comprehensive personality, laying out primary and secondary military skills, a history and quirks for each character. All in two or three paragraphs in the space of an index card. Trip-Wire: he's the minesweeper and a demolitions expert, used to be a Buddhist monk till he got kicked out for "spilling every conceivable liquid in sight." Clumsy except for explosives, which calm him down. Who he is and what he does, right there.

Between the visual cues and the dossiers, it was very clear what these characters would do and how they would go about doing it. That's key by the way, that each figure had one clear area that they excelled in, their "schtick". Sometimes even manifested in an action-ability, like a spring-loaded fist or flashy lights. As I said, Snake-Eyes can't shoot down a plane, but he can sneak into the secret enemy base, turn off the lights and kill every mo-fo there in the dark. Whereas Cobra Commander will lose a face-to-face fight with anyone, but you'll never get the chance to do that, because he has endless minions to throw at you (or at least as many as you could buy; Cobra troopers really should have come in ten-packs).

Less obvious, action figure characters also have strong and clear motivations. Usually this is expressed in the overall plot of their toy line, though sometimes there were individual motives as well. Any GI Joe figure had the motivation to "Defeat Cobra and Save America! Yo!" while any Cobra figure was driven to "Conquer the World! Hiss!"

Summing that up, a good action figure has:
*A solid visual identity
*A clear schtick
*A description of background, abilities and quirks that can fit in three paragraphs.
*A clear motivation

Which as it happens, is what I think makes a good rpg-character too. Those four elements are what I look for both when I design a character of my own and when I have players design characters for me. It doesn't have to be just those four things (I like to see some personal and group conflict), but those are the high points I need to see covered, otherwise a character feels incomplete to me.

Seems to work for me. Now I suppose the question is, does this sound workable for anyone else? Is it reasonable to present this as a model for my players?

I also concur.

Interestingly, we're talking about Drawing Stuff for Stats in another thread, and I realize that most of what you're talking about here is what I was trying to get at there -- that a visual artifact can bring together a lot of character data in a very straightforward fashion.

Posted By: John HarperI couldn't agree more. For certain types of games, of course.

What kind of games would this approach not work with? I'm not being simply argumentative, but I'm hard-pressed to think of a scenario I wouldn't look at from this perspective. The Action Figure approach doesn't necessarily have to be linked to an action-adventure premise. I'd even use it for, say, a Bronte-style heroine:

Chary Mayweather
*girlish slim figure, chin thrust out daringly.
*witty conversationalist, knows the lay of the Moors, has a way with hunting dogs
*Chary was born to impoverished tenant farmers and spent her childhood living hard but secure in the love of her family. Until the tragic night when fire swept it all away. Moved briefly to a cold orphanage, she was suddenly carried away to the manor of Lord Carstairs, declared the secretive gentleman's ward. Now Chary tries to learn the ways of the strange social circles she's been thrust into, and puzzles over the true motives of Lord Carstairs.
*Win the heart of Will Tankard, solve the mystery of her benefactor, prove her worth to society.

(I think that's actually more Dickensesque, but whatever)

Everway chargen had a bit of this feel, since you first chose a card with a pic of a cool character on it, then built from there. "See this armband? That's the symbol of his rank in the Iron Legion." Then everyone got a special talent, astrology-sign type persona, and a motivation. Maybe you can find a bunch of good sci-fantasy swashbuckling art and print out little pictures for people to base their characters on.

Ha! I wasn't even thinking of Everway when I wrote that, but I really liked that game (to a point; complete lack of GM support is a bitch) and I think exactly for the way it supports the Action Figure approach. There's a real visceral satisfaction from being able to say, "this picture, this is my character."