[D20] Start PC as child/young

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Hello at all,

maybe I and the players of my group are intentioned to begin a new campaign, but
starting with the PCs as child/young.
My idea is to give them 2-3 short adventure, inside the city where they live,
before they reach the "age" of PCs of 1st level.
In the meanwhile the young PCs detemine what type of class they take in
future...
Now, my problem is:
There are any rules to manage this situation (officials or house rules)? Or,
there is anyone on the ng that can give me any usefull hints?
Thanks in advance for the help.

--
Bye.

--
Giuseppe A.
Milano - Italy

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Giuseppe A. wrote:
> Hello at all,
>
> maybe I and the players of my group are intentioned to begin a new campaign, but
> starting with the PCs as child/young.
> My idea is to give them 2-3 short adventure, inside the city where they live,
> before they reach the "age" of PCs of 1st level.
> In the meanwhile the young PCs detemine what type of class they take in
> future...
> Now, my problem is:
> There are any rules to manage this situation (officials or house rules)? Or,
> there is anyone on the ng that can give me any usefull hints?
> Thanks in advance for the help.

No rules that I've heard of but how about the following:

Obviously race has to be determined.

Start everyone off with 8 in every ability score, then modify according
to race.

As they do the adventure they can, at any time (Free action if you want
to define it) take one of the following

+2 to an ability score: May be taken three(?) times (no more than twice
to the same ability). Taking this means your eventual character must
have a minimum of the new value in the chosen ability.

Cast a 0-level spell: May be taken once(?) only. Taking this 'locks'
you in to taking only the classes that have that 0-level spell
available at first level.

+1 BAB: May be taken once only. Taking this 'locks' you in to taking
only the classes that have +1 BAB at first level.

+2 to a save: May be taken once per save only. Taking this 'locks' you
in to taking only the classes that have +2 to that save at first level.

similarly for feats, skills, class abilities, etc.

Obviously you can only take the things that lock you into at least one
common class (so no +1 to BAB and then casting a 0-level spell).

I'd also allow any of these to be taken after the result of a roll is
known (so, if a character misses an attack roll by 1, they're allowed
to take the +1 BAB ability at that point and have the attack hit). I
think this makes things a bit more interesting and means that
unexpected characters may develop. It also gives a reason not to just
take all of the abilities at the start - if this is still a problem
though, you could just limit the rate at which the characters can take
the abilities (1 per encounter, or whatever).

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Giuseppe A. wrote:
> Hello at all,
>
> maybe I and the players of my group are intentioned to begin a new campaign, but
> starting with the PCs as child/young.
> My idea is to give them 2-3 short adventure, inside the city where they live,
> before they reach the "age" of PCs of 1st level.
> In the meanwhile the young PCs detemine what type of class they take in
> future...
> Now, my problem is:
> There are any rules to manage this situation (officials or house rules)? Or,
> there is anyone on the ng that can give me any usefull hints?

It isn't d20, but the AD&D 1E "Greyhawk Adventures" book (TSR 1988) had
an appendix dealing with creating and running 0-level characters. The
basic idea was that the characters started out very weak, with low
ability scores and no skills. As they adventured, they used earned
"Instruction Points" and a limited pool of "Aptitude Points" to
increase ability scores and buy skills and talents appropriate to the
class they would become.


Arivne

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

Giuseppe A. wrote:
> Hello at all,
>
> maybe I and the players of my group are intentioned to begin a new campaign, but
> starting with the PCs as child/young.
> My idea is to give them 2-3 short adventure, inside the city where they live,
> before they reach the "age" of PCs of 1st level.
> In the meanwhile the young PCs detemine what type of class they take in
> future...
> Now, my problem is:
> There are any rules to manage this situation (officials or house rules)? Or,
> there is anyone on the ng that can give me any usefull hints?
> Thanks in advance for the help.

I did this a while back, starting with two adventures, one at PCs
around age 10, then a second around age 13, then, around 18 or so, they
became full first-level characters.

Here's the character creation/advancement rules I used for the kids.
Note that this does not create *exactly* a first-level character, but
pretty close.
I also gave special abilities depending on their actions during the
children part of the game - for example, a character who got in a lot
of fights when he was 10 was given a +1BAB bonus at the end of that
adventure, and a couple of characters were able to pick up 0-level
cleric or wizard spells, or a few extra points in skills, depending on
what they did during the adventure. These bonuses were all subsumed
into their first level, and we ended up with, for example, a wizard
with a +1 attack, and a fighter who could cast Mage Hand once/day.
Hard-core rules lawyers won't like it, but it's not significant enough
to be unbalancing, and gives some variety: ("Points to stats" refers to
the points used in the DMG stat point-buy method)

First Adventure: Age 10
One-half of all racial modifiers (round down)
9 points to stats
3 points to skills + int bonus (all skills that do not require training
to use are class skills)
(4 skill points for humans)
3 hit points +CON bonus
Racial languages only
+1 to any save

Second Adventure: Age 13
Full racial modifiers
8 more points to stats
3 more points to skills + int bonus (all skills that do not require
training to use are class skills)
(4 skill points for Humans)
4 hit points +CON bonus
First feat for Human characters
Bonus languages (if any)
+1 to any save

First Level: Age 18
8 more points to stats
1 Feat for all characters
4x class skill points + 2x int bonus
Hit points as per class
Full saves and base attack as per class

-Pat

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.dnd (More info?)

"pluther" <pluther@usa.net> ha scritto

First I want to thanks all that give me an answer or hint.

> I did this a while back, starting with two adventures, one at PCs
> around age 10, then a second around age 13, then, around 18 or so, they
> became full first-level characters.

Nice!
I find your rules very usefull as starting point to develop my house rules
and I would like, if possible and if you want, to see the adventures that
you and your group have played before the PC arrive at 1st level.
Eventually I give you my e-mail address (trolloc"at"tiscalinet.it).
Thanks again.

--

--

Bye.
Giuseppe A.