Character Creation part 1

I've got a lot of ideas floating through my head about how I want character creation to work. I think I want a super light character creation process that can be used for one-off games and a slightly more involved process that can be used for campaign games. The light-weight process will be the same as mechanics as the heavier-weight process but will be more of a "pick from a short list" type of process versus a "custom character" process.

The Demigods game had double sided character sheets for each archetype. It was laid out in the order you needed to make decisions. My wife was able to walk us through each step and at the end we had a character. I'd like my light-weight process to be much the same. For example you decide to play a brick so you pick up that character sheet because you've got a great character idea. You adjust your base characteristics to fit your character, you select one or more weaknesses or flaws, you select a appropriate abilities for your character then you are good to start playing.

Characteristics

I don't want too many characteristics:
Strength - uhhh...  how strong the character is
Intelligence - how smart the character is
Dexterity - how dexterous or agile the character is
Empathy - how adept the character is at understanding and/or manipulating other people
Fortitude - how tough the character is and will also apply to how resistant they are to adverse physical conditions
Perseverance- This is kind of a moral fortitude...  When under stress or duress, how well does this character stay the course

Wow, six characteristics...  That might be more than I want but I cannot think of any I'd get rid of off hand. I suppose this deserves a little more thought.

Strength is oddly enough one that I am thinking I could do without. Maybe merge it with Fortitude somehow. Strength is a characteristic in many games that is used to determine how much physical damage a character can do, how much they can carry and how much they can dead lift. Since I want this game to be more role playing / comic book based characters should be able to lift whatever is appropriate for their character. Tracking load and carrying capacity is right out as it is unnecessary book keeping for role playing. I'm not sure yet how I want damage to work but it's possible that if a character wants to be able to do extra damage because they are strong, they could just take a feat that would grant them that capability.

Intelligence will be a measure of how quick a character thinks. Kind of a mental agility. It has nothing to do with how much the character knows. In my personal world view there is a difference between smart and educated. Education would come in the form of knowledge skills. A person with a lower intelligence can still have a number of knowledge skills, things they learned through hard work and perseverance. Intelligence is also no measure of always coming to the right answer on things. Smart people are just as subject to motivated reasoning or other logical fallacies.

Dexterity is on the fence as well. If it stays it would cover small things like manual dexterity and physical agility. Again, like intelligence a person with a low dexterity could still learn and perform ballet or put together watches or those little ships in a bottle... it would just take them more time and effort than someone who is naturally dexterous.

Fortitude is a measure of how generally robust a character is physically. It covers general health as well as resistance to disease and other physical ailments.

Perseverance is kind of a mental fortitude. How well does the character deal with stress and adversity.

 Weaknesses / Flaws

People have flaws and weaknesses. It's part of what makes us human. It is also part of what makes a character interesting to role play. Winning a role playing game is a matter of playing your character appropriately even if it is disadvantageous to accomplishing your goal. If your character has a short temper perhaps he picks a fight with a recalcitrant civilian rather than stopping to see things from their position. Perhaps that car he just crushed was the civilian's new car.

Demigods had a number of ways to gain threads. A thread is basically an experience point; though, threads could be used for other things like adding dice to a roll. One of the ways you could gain threads was doing things in character. I'd like incorporate the same kind of reward for good role playing. If you are playing a villain with the weakness Soliloquy, pausing your plans to explain them to the hero allowing him to shoot you in the face should be rewarded.

Skills / Abilities / Powers

Since we are talking super heroes we need to give characters the ability fly, to throw cars, shoot energy beams, run faster than a train, etc. I want some set of these to be themed for a archetype. Energy beams are more the domain of an elemental or energy projector and not a brick. Feats of strength are usually the domain of a brick and not a speedster or mentalist. Some of these will probably need to just be things a character can do without needing to roll dice. Things like cooking, flying, telepathic communication...  These are things a character can just do. Some things like firing an energy beam or punching a villain should require a die roll to determine success.

These are going to need a fair bit more thought. Something for another day I think.