Problems with Character Creation - Analysis Paralysis

    One problem that I believe many people notice in RPGS and work to fix, even subconsciously, is having too many choices during character creation. It sounds crazy, but it is a real problem. Anyone who has attempted to make a character in Cyberpunk, Pathfinder, or even 5th Edition D&D knows that the number of choices to be made can make it difficult to quickly make a character, even for experienced players!

    5E specifically has 13 classes, a huge number of races, and even more backgrounds, nevermind the character options that unlock as characters level up like spells, subclasses, and feats! There is an enormous number of options to consider, and it can be completely overwhelming for new players.

    From my experiences, OSR games generally try to shy away from this, but not nearly as much as we might like to think. Sure, everyone knows about the three main classes of Fighting-Man, Magic-User, and Cleric or Thief, but it is important to remember that Dwarves, Elves, and Halflings are also usually class options! While they may just be small bonuses and penalties applied to base classes, they are still more option. On top of that, the Greyhawk supplement added many other classes like Paladins and Monks which are still common in games! The choices just keep increasing and while most OSR games don't start with more than a few classes, if they get expanded upon it normally includes more classes. At the extreme end, you can end up with a game like GLOG which, through its very design, encourages multitudes of incredibly flavorful and hyper-specific classes. 

    I'm not saying this is bad, however. It is natural to keep trying to expand the game. Players and DMs will both come up with character concepts which don't fit into the currently available options, which always presents the question of how to handle it. Creating a new class is the original solution, like with making Elves a class, but over time people have come up with different ways to expand character creation options. The problem, however, is that as choices proliferate it becomes harder and harder to choose between them and to introduce new players to them. 

    One solution to this is to clamp down on initial character options. For new players, only present them the basic class options. Don't offer lots of fiddly character creation. Consider even restricting the initial selection of spells to just the most iconic or effective. All of these can work (and are things I think many RPGs would benefit from), but they aren't a complete, or perfect, solution. As I am working on making my own system, I am being confronted with the desire to make more classes.

    How should I handle paladins? Assassins? Monks? Bards? All of them are standard classes in 5E and many OSR games, so there will be a subtle expectation many people have that they can use my system to create characters like that. Sure, I could tightly bundle my system with a setting that doesn't include those, but I don't think that would be fun. Paladins, monks, and the rest are all cool! They help diversify the game! So, I need people to be able to create these characters, but I don't want to swamp people with choices. The solution I am currently trying out, is to very, very tightly control my classes and offer Feats to let people customize their characters. And not tiny, little feats that you need to stack multiple of to get a real benefit. I mean character changing and defining features, along with a couple which are effectively "I'd rather not choose" options.

    So, how would that work? Well, every character gets one of the basic classes to start with. Fighter is obviously one, clerics get rolled into Magic-Users and are only differentiated by flavor, and maybe Thieves (I know they have their own issues, but I'm not focusing on those right now). Perhaps I would even expand that to include something like Ranger, if I can expand it to have its own domain of play that doesn't encroach on the other classes.

    From there, characters also get to choose a Feature at level 1 to differentiate their character. Non-choice options would be something like increasing a stat or generally boosting saves. To account for people who want to play Elves, Dwarves, or other such things, there will be Bloodline Feats which will grant the bonuses people expect. For classes like Paladin or Monk, there can be individual feats which grant the most important bonuses (holy smiting and martial arts respectively). And of course, there should probably be some feats which are class restricted, since Magic-Users wouldn't need a feat to give them spellcasting and it wouldn't make sense for a non-Magic-User to have a feat to make them exceptional casters (play a Magic-User for that!).

    If we are giving out Feats, there comes the question of how many a character should get, and how they should get them. I know there are people who believe that Feats should only be granted to characters working toward something, but I do not believe that offering Feats at certain levels necessarily contradicts that. It is a simple house-rule to restrict the feats available to players unless they perform certain actions and is, in fact, something that should be a house rule. Attempting to write complete rules to handle something like that would be incredibly convoluted, and likely be barely applicable to most tables without houseruling. 

    In terms of how many a character should get, I do not believe there should be too many. One Feature at level 1 helps differentiate characters and lets everyone get involved in the system. After that, I think that one at level 4 would also work well. Most people do not get into very high level play, and systems like GLOG effectively soft-cap progression after level 4, so I think it is a good spot. For people going further, I think another Feature at level 8 would work well, since that is theoretically the next stage of power, when characters begin to move into domain level play. After that, however, I'm not sure. There has never been a fantastic idea of conception of high level play, so I don't know what would fit well or where. I suppose it would be easy to just keep increasing by 4 and give Feats at levels 8, 12, 16, 20, and so on.

    I'm not sure on that progression, however, and would love to hear any thoughts on the matter! What are your thoughts on how character creation should work? Are there any systems you know which have knocked it out of the park?