I’m working on a new module for a local get together (more on that below). So I’ve had my laptop open with my Players Handbook (5e is the system) creating characters and watching baseball down in the basement. This caught the attention of my youngest son and I’ve been explaining the different options and backgrounds and races, etc. He decided that he would like to create his own character today! I was a little afraid of how he was going to go about it, because he was more interested weapons and stats, but he came through like a champ.

Dad, “Well the first thing you should do when creating a character is have a concept about what the character would be, and then figure out stats and stuff.”

Son, “Oh yeah, I want to model him after a character in a book. He’s an orphan who is hunted by the orphanage he escaped from and has to steal to get by.”

Dad, “OK. How about we create something after dinner.” Dad’s inner story based DM voice, “Huzzah!”

And we did and it was fun. Rollan (my son’s character) is a half-elf rogue with the urchin background. Eventually my son just took over the keyboard and started adjusting skills and adding traits on his own. I think he was digging it.

Of course now the challenge is getting him into a game. Both he and my older son ran through part of the Basic Boxed set and had an OK time, but that was with pregen characters. With their own characters it might be more fun. I guess we shall have to see.

The game I’m currently working on is based on an idea I saw on the GameHoleCon website of events. I was listening to the Gaming and BS podcast when they had one of the con directors on and I decided to take a look at their events. One of the first RPG events was a takeoff on Gilligan’s Island – and my brain immediately took off. I”ll have eight players (I know – too many), and unfortunately that is more than the characters in the show. So, my game is based around the Skipper and Gilligan returning to the island after being run off while the other cast-a-ways were killed or worse by some nefarious group. The Skipper has rounded up a group of other 60’s TV heroes to help him exact revenge on his newly sworn mortal enemies. Now I get to mix and match TV characters to 5e races/classes. For example, Tonto is a Ranger (little irony there), Herman Munster is a Paladin, The Flying Nun is the Cleric, etc. A ton of fun.

I’ll try and post details and character sheets after next weekend.