UPDATE: Character Creation During Play (Rules Update + Actual Play)

 So I have been tinkering with my rules for Character Creation During Play that I originally discussed here. One of the flaws in my system that was proposed by a shrewd commentator was that this kind of character creation would be difficult for those new to the hobby. I decided to try an altered version of my rules on some people very new to the hobby. The new rules are as follow:

Basic Mechanic: Roll high on a d20, adding modifiers. All checks must meet or exceed 15, though especially favorable or negative circumstances can raise as high as 20 or lower as far as 10. (I didn't ever actually raise or lower the target number this time around, I just imposed Advantage and Disadvantage which worked fine.)

Stats: Might, Mind, Agility. During play, the players get to assign 3, 2, and 1 to them as they like during play. I presented this to them in terms of: "You get to be Very Good (+3) at one thing Ok (+2) at another, and Not So Good (+1) at the last." (You could probably change these numbers if these seem too high but they worked quite well and were satisfying it seemed for the players.

AC (Armor Class) begins at 10 and is not affected by Agility but only armor.

Everyone starts play with 1d6 HP, 1d6 Rations, 1d6 Torches, and 4 Equipment Points. These are really the only two things I have players make a note of before the game starts, in order to give characters a better sense of how much of a risk they can take.

Equipment Points: 1 Point buys most mundane objects. 1 Point buys three rations or torches. 1 Point for Light Armor (+2 AC). 2 Points for Heavy Armor (+4 AC). 1 Point for a Light Weapon (1d6). 1 Point for a Ranged Weapon (1d6 Comes with 10 Ammunition or 3 Fights worth of Arrows). 2 Points for a Heavy Weapon (1d8). 

In the course of play as the occasion occurs, in addition to rolling stats, call upon the players to choose their Class and make up a Background.

A Background provides an additional Equipment Point for an item that a person in your profession might reasonably possess and a +2 when rolling a check related to said profession.

The Classes are as follow:

Fighter:

• +1d6 HP
• +1 to Attacks and Damage
• Reroll a Failed Attack Once Per Combat

Thief:

• + 1d6 to Thief Skills (including Avoiding Traps, Acrobatics, Backstab Attacks, and Damage)
• Can Cast a Spell from a Scroll with a 2 in 6 Chance of Failure.

Wizard: 

• 3 Spells to be created during play through negotiation with GM
• Can Cast Spells from Scrolls

Actual Play: (If you are one of my regular players, you might want to not read too far into this part because it might spoil a dungeon I'd like to run for you all sometime.)

Before we began, I wrote up some Character Sheets on notecards. The character sheet displayed all the components of the character and allowed them to pick from the three classes. I think these were a great help for them. Having to write in a sheet from scratch might be a little difficult, but the sheet makes for a nice roadmap for the process. Plus, fitting it all on a single notecard I think put everyone at ease, to know that the game was simple enough to fit on a single card.

For the Equipment Points, I used some little magnets that I had. Whenever they used one up, they slid their magnets on towards me.

I provided dice for everyone, giving them only the dice they needed when they needed them. I started everyone out with 1d6 and 1d20. Then if they found or bought a large weapon, I gave them 1d8. Being confused about the dice is something I have seen players do even many sessions into a game, so I think rationing the dice this way was helpful. It is also useful that on the player side, they really only used three dice.

After a dinner of homemade pizza, we sat down to play. Our cast:

• Helen: My fiance (then girlfriend). She played one time before. I ran her BX and we played with some friends of mine over the internet. She did not enjoy that as much but Mac and Ashley are mainly her friends that I have come to know. We all are comfortable with each other and have played board games together before. Rolled a 3 on HP.
• Mac: New to the game but listens to the Adventure Zone, a D&D Actual Play Podcast. We can talk for hours about Star Wars. Rolled a 1 on HP.
• Ashley: Completely new to the game and not especially into nerdy stuff at all although she likes board games. I knew if I could draw in Ashley, I would have really succeeded. Rolled a 5 on HP.

I ran my own adventure: Tomb of the Deathless Prince.

I gave them the preamble. There is a cosmic convergence happening soon. People have gone missing from the village. Hooded figures have been spotted on the mountain. The book of genealogies has been stolen from the church. The mayor will pay handsomely for adventurers to come and deal with the problem and save the missing townspeople.

I began them at the entrance to the tomb, telling them this was said to be the resting place of an ancient Prince from a time when mankind worshipped old and savage gods who was said to return one day.

The tomb entrance is set back into the mountainside so as to be hidden from the sun at all hours of the day. There is a sunburst on the door with an inverted metallic semi-sphere in the middle. Upon the door is written: "Hail fellow light-bringer, shine upon us and enter."

Mac tried the elven word for "friend." Ashley decided her background was as a Retail Manager and pulled out an elaborate multipaneled mirror from Ye Olde Marshalls to reflect the setting sun's light at the door. She pretty quickly decided her name would be Sheryl.

The door slid down to reveal an arched hall comprised of large black tiles. They could see something sticking out of an alcove about 20ft down and on the right. It appeared a little further down and on the left, there was a part of the wall broken away.

Concerned about a trap, Mac decided that he was an Acrobat, gaining +2 to parkour from torch sconce to torch sconce to land in the alcove. I suggested that he could be a Thief if he wanted more bonuses to such things. At some point, he accepts this suggestion.

There is a six-armed figure in the alcove. It is an obsidian statue of a skeletal king. One set of arms clutched a polearm and shield. One pair held ancient puddles of long melted candle wax and the last set held an offering bowl. Mac inspected the bowl and it smelled of old blood and metal.

The others just walked in, finding no traps. Mac wrenched the polearm free from the statue, already looking to conserve resources by using the environment. Helen decided she wanted to be a Wizard and created a spell to become a bird and scout ahead. After taking stock of what lay ahead, they proceeded down the hallway where the tile gave way to a cavern. This tunnel led down to a large cave space. There was a pit in the middle of the floor filled with unusually large webs. On the other side of the chasm, something glinted gold. As a bird, Helen flew over and found that it was fools gold (I pretty much stole this room from Sleeping Place of the Feathered Swine.) 

Ashley tossed down a torch into the webbed pit and Helen flew down after to be confronted by a giant spider. crawling towards her. She flew back up as the others tied a rope and descended. At some point, Ashley decides to be a Fighter and gets 11HP! As they see the spider crawling up towards them, Mac takes out some throwing daggers. (I used d4s for this damage, which maybe I shouldn't have but its force of habit) while Ashley asked if her character could weigh 400lbs to just leap down and crush the spider. I did not allow this but still Ashley and Mac did valiant battle against the spider, wth bird Helen to support them. Some minor tactics were used but mostly the crew just damaged the spider any way they could think of and managed to kill it as it tried to flee.

The descended into its lair to find that it opened up into another cave space with multiple tunnels stretching off from it. In the middle of this tunnel is the web of the once-living spider. Without too much deliberation, the party took off down the northern path where they found that the cave once again gave way to a manmade structure. Through another breach, they found the Treasure Vault. Many magical items were on racks and on displays throughout the room, but sitting on a pile of gold was a giant man wearing armor that looked like an iron maiden. As they began inspecting the treasure this man took hold of his greatsword and stood: "Intruders! You must flee this place! None may steal from the vault of the Deathless Prince! In my punishment, I am set to guard over this place lest he kill my family! Flee before I must slay you!"

Mac and Helen snuck around the Torment Guardian while Ashley spoke with him: "What if we help free your family?"

He responded: "Have you not seen the immensity of his great black citadels? Have you not witnessed his terrible empire which stretches far and wide! No! It is impossible to save them! I must suffer so they can live!"

Of course, Sheryl has no knowledge of what he speaks accept that the world she knows is nothing like that. Maybe in ancient times, but no more.

All the while, Helen and Mac have been stealing everything that isn't nailed down. Among other things, Mac finds a large iron key gripped by a dragon-shaped display. Helen finds a pitch-black arrow that drinks the light. A poor stealth roll draws the attention of the Guardian and he turns to face Mac: "Subterfuge! I must protect my family!"

Mac manages to avoid the Guardian's attacks while Helen tries to shoot the black arrow at the Guardian. She misses but notices the Guardian avoids the arrow fearfully. Ashley and Mac attack with little effect while Helen retrieves the arrow. Her second shot strikes true, passing like a ghost through the guardian's armor and he breathes a "Thank you." as he dies.

They looted the room, Helen deciding on a spell to store all the gold. They discover a secret door and this leads them to the throne room. There, over a great obsidian sarcophagus shaped like the creature depicted in the idol is a hooded figure throwing salt about and muttering arcane phrases. Two skeletal guards in black armor stand close by. 

They manage to sneak around the edge of the immense room to one of the two exits but find it is blocked by some kind of statues that they hesitate to engage for fear they become animate and attack with other enemies so close by.

Helen decides to teleport up to the great arching buttresses using a magic item she found in the vault. The hooded figure sends one of the skeletons to go bring forth: "The Blood of His Blood." The skeleton begins marching right towards where Mach and Ashley are hiding. Helen fires down an arrow at the hooded man. Struck, his hood falls back revealing a bald head covered in tattoos. The skeletons turn to protect the cultist while Mac and Ashley rush in to joint he fray. 

After a tense battle involving Mac exploding back to life with a Pheonix Ring, he found in the vault, the party triumphs over the enemies and decide to use the other exit from this room.

They go into a hexagonal room with a black mirror floor and three standing stone sarcophagi depicting three characters:

• A man holding an anchor, surrounded by waves, wearing a necklace of fish bones. The edge of the sarcophagus is moist and covered in lichen.
• A man bearing a sword and wearing a crown of swords. The edge is stained with old dry blood.
• A man surrounded by clouds, hands stretched towards the sky. The edge is sealed with purple wax.

Opening the anchor sarcophagi, water flowed forth like a raging flood, throwing Ashley against the opposite wall. A well-placed fireball from Helen, destroyed the corpse within, stopping the flood, and they took an amulet from within.

They examined the other two statues and the floor, seeing that their reflections were not right. Near the sarcophagi of swords, they saw themselves impaled with two stab wounds. New the cloud sarcophagus they found their reflections choking, holding their necks. They managed to heat the wax from afar allowing the gas to spill forth and disperse harmlessly, finding a magic mask within.

They opened the swords sarcophagi from the side allowing the ghostly blades that flew forth to pass them harmlessly. They took forth a magic sword from within.

They left through the southern hall, arriving into a large hall, the walls lined with crystalline coffins each holding pale but pristine bodies. Columns made of canopic jars stretched up towards a ceiling that was... difficult to describe. It was as if they were looking up into some strange foggy aquarium, gentle, shifting greenish-blue light coming from above, interrupted by drifting dark shadows.

Examining the bodies in a green-skinned man with three arms, his third arm carrying a candle of black wax. Around his waist are tools of embalming. Thinking those in the coffins were the stolen villagers, the party threw things to break the coffins, enraging the Embalmer. "NO! MY PRESERVED! YOU MUST NOT TOUCH THEM! THEY HAVE WAITED SO LONG!" He attacked, his candle lighting blue as strangely angelic forms came down as one, like tendrils to pick up Mac and begin lifting him towards that strange light above. Ashley's skin becomes hard like porcelain, preventing her from moving as he attacks. Helen distracts him and Ashley manages to break free, save Mac and grapple the Embalmer with a Nat 20. I end the fight there. He is restrained utterly. He cannot free himself. They talk with him and he proves to be helpful. These in the coffins are not the villagers but bodies he has perfectly preserved for hundreds of years. He warns them about the remaining cultists and promises to help them if they will only let him continue his work. They set up and ambush, luring the remaining cultists from guarding the prisoners into the room with the embalmer where he Raptured them, their bodies drifting up into that strange light above and not coming back down.

The last thing the Embalmer mentions is that he sees Mac's key and asks him if he wants to free the Great Beast who always moans about wanting his freedom.

They take the villagers back to the town and return, following the Embalmer to the Great Beast. There Mac meets face to face with a massive Black Dragon who asks: "Will you free me, little one?" That was where we ended off.

Afterthoughts:

Everyone really liked it. Even Ashley was drawn in, and even though it was getting late, they all stuck around to try and arrive at a satisfying conclusion. They all adapted to the character creation during play super well. It was like we began with the basic level of complexity: "The main rule is what is allowable by logic and common sense." Then we added on levels of complexity as we went, adding rules when they were needed. This actually proved to be helpful in learning the game and prevented us from spending time sitting around and building characters without actually knowing how to play the game. The characters evolved out of necessity which I think is super cool and seemed to work even for a bunch of very new people. 

It made me think that character advancement in this game could work the same way. Add on layers of complexity as the game wears on. First session: you survived and got some gold? Good. Now onto level 2! Then you could introduce charts for XP. Then you could add in variable Hit Dice. Or you could add in DCC style Luck? Or maybe more abilities? Random charts for advancement? I think a really nice thing about the base system is that it is totally modular. No aspect of the character subtracts, it only adds. Each piece is grafted onto a more coherent whole. The same thing could be done with rules. I could write up many different possible Rule Modules that could be stacked onto your base game as you go taking advantage of each new session or level up to introduce new facets of play. Ultimately, it would be up to the GM and the players to think of house rules that could be ported into the system to improve it, and I think this design would really encourage that.