I've already mentioned this subject in past blogs, most notably my rant about rolling stats. TL;DR version: If that's how everyone at your table wants to generate characters, great, but I personally prefer allowing players to have more creative control in building their characters.
But today I want to talk about campaign ideas that remove agency. For the record, I'm using the following definition of agency:
"In social science, agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices." - Wikipedia
Every DM lies awake at night trying to come up with brand new, creative ideas for campaigns. Unfortunately, a lot of them come up with the exact same "brand new, creative ideas". One that I see tossed around a lot is amnesia-themed campaigns.
In a typical amnesia scenario, the DM builds characters for all their players, who don't even know what race or class they will be playing at the beginning of the campaign. The PCs typically wake up with no memories, knowing only what they see in front of them. They fill out their own character sheets one discovery at a time.
I look like a human? Write that down. I'm good with a lockpick? I must be a Rogue, write it down. By the end of the first session, you'll probably have most of your character sheet filled out, and can start working on the campaign's true plot - finding out why you lost your memories and getting your life back.
Yes, it’s an interesting idea, and it would make a pretty fun one-shot. But after the initial session, you’re left playing a character you didn’t design. Now, a good DM might know their players well enough to build characters they’ll enjoy. If you’re reading this and considering running such a campaign, ask your players in advance which races and classes they like most. Then build characters with that in mind. Once they’ve assembled their entire character sheet, allow them to make minor changes if they don’t like your choices. I’m not much of a powergamer myself, but min/maxers deserve to have fun just as much as the rest of us, and should be given a little leeway.
One DM I know is bothered by players who always play the same characters. He says he wants to run a campaign where, once everyone has created their character, they pass their character sheet to their left so that everyone plays a character they didn’t design. Now, I want to stress that this DM is a good friend and I love him. But if he pulled this crap on me at the start of a campaign, I would walk the fuck right out, and he knows it. Not only would I be playing a character I didn’t create, but in such a scenario, it would feel like I was playing someone else’s character. I’d have trouble making decisions as that character, because I wouldn’t know if I was playing the character the way the original author intended. Basically, I want my character to feel like an extension of myself, and this scenario makes me feel further detached from my character.
Although, switching character sheets around could be fun for a “body swap” story, where the PCs get their minds switched by an evil wizard. The story could have them searching for the wizard to get themselves switched back. But this story works best in an existing campaign, where the characters’ personalities are well established, so that the switching has more impact. If you do it to brand new characters, when they’re still just numbers on a page, there’s nothing really to “switch”, it’s just making the players play different classes. I also think this side story should only last two or three sessions before they go back to normal, so the players can get back to controlling the characters they designed.
Honestly, I don’t get why some DMs care so much what their players play. The PC is the one part of the story the player controls. Everything else in the world is DM’s choice – setting, NPCs, technology level, whether magic is common, all the way down to whether the local butcher is left handed. I just don’t understand DMs who also want to control the one part of the game that’s supposed to be up to the players. It seems greedy. Might as well roll their dice for them too, and make all their decisions. Heck, might as well not even bother meeting up, and just write a book instead.
I know a guy who almost always plays the same character. Not just the same race/class, but even the same name, personality traits, and facial disfigurement. I’ve seen him play this character in several campaigns, taking place in different universes. And you know what? It’s never caused us any problems. It’s never pulled me out of the game. Is my friend missing out by not experiencing what other classes might offer? I doubt it; he’s been playing D&D a lot longer than I have. He probably tried all the classes and races long before I ever met him, and now he has his favorite. I can’t fault him for that, any more than I can fault someone for always ordering their favorite flavor at Baskin Robbins. If a DM forbade him from playing that character, he’d probably go find a different group.
Maybe you think it’s good for your players to get out of their comfort zones. But you know what? That’s not your job. You’re not their psychiatrist, you’re their dungeon master. Your job is to create interesting worlds for them to explore, design powerful villains for them to fight, and craft intricate plot hooks for them to ignore. Unless a player wants to play a character that doesn’t fit the theme of your campaign, then it’s none of your business what kind of PC they play. Actually, even if a player wanted to play a race that doesn’t exist in my universe, I’d probably work with them to make it happen. Maybe they fell through a wormhole or something. An out-of-place character generates some cool roleplay scenarios.
I believe in player agency. It’s part of what makes RPGs appealing, as opposed to more restrictive board games. And it’s a large part of the reason I play.
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