In short, more PC/NPC options generally means more creation time. -It's a give take thing.

As a player, I like a system that enables me to play the kind of character I want. As a GM, I like a system that enables me to make unique NPCs, but to churn them out pretty quickly.

What kind of time frames are you willing to give for the creation of each, assuming you are not learning the game at the same time?

For PCs, as Lincoln said when asked how long a man's legs should be: "Long enough to reach the ground."

For NPCs, faaast!

-clash

I'm willing to put an hour into creating a spotlight character—my PC that i expect to survive at least a few sessions, or a major NPC. I prefer more like 20 minutes. I'm willing to spend a session building a whole group. That includes give and take on who brings what to the party and working up the shared history.

For cannon fodder PCs (sometimes those games are fun) not more than 10 minutes.

For minor NPCs i like a modular system that lets me build as little of the NPC as necessary but allows those NPCs to be easily developed if they survive more than 5 minutes in the PCs presence. Systems which describe minor NPCs mechanically differently than PCs and major NPCs annoy me because any NPC that rises above his station needs to be recreated from scratch. Let me build the NPCs in stages of less than a minute each stage.

For me it needs to be fast and easy.  A full session to create characters? Bloated three-page character sheet? Not my kind of game.

I've always had the best experiences where I can, on the spot and in the space of a few seconds, decide how good an NPC should be at task X and resolve that right away.
*dons asbestos riot gear*
This was one of the thinks I liked about the OWoD system. If my players decided that they weren't going to take any guff from the bouncer I could think to myself "Okay, this guy has 2 dex, probably 3 brawl, and a 4 strength", at which point I could jot that down on a piece of paper and moderate the (probably quite short) combat.

I think the systems that lack a structured class-based building system are the best for that kind of improv. While crunchy options are great for building characters, the more options, the more prep time is required.

Classes can be a mixed bag. The OD&D model where you had one and only one class ever (except fighters who turned avenger/knight/whatever and clerics who are druids) allowed you to say "Okay. 11th level fighter. Sword and platemail +1. Have at it" and figure out what's necessary for combat in a small amount of time. On the other end of the spectrum, you have 3.5 (especially with the later splatbooks) where you have to figure out not just class levels but feat selections, skill selections, multiclass or prestige class selections, and which magic items a level-appropriate character would have found under the the christmas tree. The very things that made a character wonderfully customizable for players made game prep harder for the GM (thank goodness for the MM)

Not very long in either case, but that's just my preference.

Hey, did you ever come out with a Wayfarers screen? You should announce that kind of stuff here.

These days I like to put about 30 minutes, at most, into creating a new player character. NPC's just get the most relevant stats statted, unless of course, something unexpected happens during gameplay.

A couple of minutes tops for NPCs. PCs can take all night if it's fun. If it's not fun then it better be over fast.

Ten minutes, same system for player or non-.

PCs?  Fast (max 30 minutes - preferably 15).

NPCs? Very Fast (max 15 minutes - preferably 5).

I allow double time if its a new & complex system.

Quote from: Spinachcat;338300PCs?  Fast (max 30 minutes - preferably 15).

NPCs? Very Fast (max 15 minutes - preferably 5).

I allow double time if its a new & complex system.

Pretty much this, though for NPCs I'd say max 10 minutes - preferably 5.

Five minutes, PC and NPC alike.

Personally, I can stand about 30-40 min for a PC, depending on how indecisive I am, and 5-10 min for a minor NPC, 10-15 for a major one.

Quote from: FASERIP;338288Not very long in either case, but that's just my preference.

Hey, did you ever come out with a Wayfarers screen? You should announce that kind of stuff here.

Ha, yeah. I probably should. I'll do it proper in the ADs forum. Here you go.

I do ask for a Wayfarers-based reason, actually. I am working on ways to get NPC generation times down. I am probably the fastest Wayfarers NPC generator there is, but I made the game. We made an effort to address it, but I think we can do better. I believe it's an obstacle to new Wayfarers GMs, -one I am working on chiseling down.

BTW, thanks for the replies.

I've probably played and gmed more Palladium than anything... maybe even more than dungeons and dragons. One of the big problems with palladium is how long it takes to make a character, especially in Ninjas and Superspies, Nightbane, or Heroes Unlimited.

For those games, when making an NPC, I would select powers and a level... so like "Sonic Flight, Super Strength, Hand to Hand Expert, Level 5." Then I would arbitarely select a bonus for the character from +4 to +25 depending on how good I think he should be. Usually player characters have a +12, give or take, in most important combat skills, excluding firearms. I'd also pick a skill percentage for performing all known tasks, usually 50% + 5% per level. That's it.

It's a strong reaction to how long it takes to right up a real Palladium character, but it worked well.

For me, 15 minutes per player character is about ideal. Anything more than that and the level of entertainment steadily decreases. The exception are those games that have truly entertaining character generation; WFRP and Amber being two good cases in point.

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