Listening to the Happy Jacks podcast last week provided me with an idea for a GenCon game (it may have been one of the hosts or one of the emails – sorry can’t remember). The game is based around a group of PCs that are part of the dungeon builders guild. Who do you think makes all those dungeons, the monsters, don’t be silly.

I will post more info about the game later – still working on ideas – but for right now I thought it would be interesting to talk about the PCs.

First decision is system. Since I’m currently running Hoard of the Dragon Queen (and am likely to be doing it through GenCon) I selected Dungeons and Dragons 5e. It was between Savage Worlds, Dungeon World and 5e. 5e won because of familiarity and I’ve run the rest of those systems already at GenCon.

Next is something to tie the PCs together. I came up with two things. First is height. Dungeons can be cramped dirty and by definition underground. All the characters are short – dwarves, gnomes, halflings, and a tiefling (close enough). Second is names. This idea is stolen directly from another of the GMs in my group that ran a Savage Worlds game based on a group of architects forced to capture an arcane artifact for the Nazis just before WW II. Each PC is named after a famous builder.

Last for now is level. I am going with level 5. This gives a good balance between abilities and restraint. Hopefully not too much for the players to grasp in a few minutes and enough to give some variety.

Here is what I have right now for PCs:

Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion) – Frank Lloyd Wright – Leader

Hill Dwarf Cleric  (Domain Undefined) – Ming Pei – Primary Builder

Rock Gnome Wizard (Conjurer)  – Mimar Sinan – Trickster

Tiefling Bard (Lore) – Le Corbusier – Negotiator

Lightfoot Halfling Rogue (Thief) – Christopher Wren (Sir) – Trap Expert

Stout Halfling Monk (Way of Shadow)- Antoni Gaudi – Poisoner

I am sure that things will change once I start enhancing them a bit. I haven’t defined male or female. That often comes from backstory and if any characters are interrelated. Magic items may be a huge undertaking, probably one or more posts just on that.

More as I get time to create them.