Dungeon Master Basics - Your Role in PC Creation

Responsible as you are for designing the campaign and all that entails (and we all know just how much time you can sink into getting things ready) one would think you could sit back and leave the PC creation completely to the players. That as long as you draw out the maps, put together the enemy stats, figure out what's supposed to happen and all the rest of it, you could leave the incredibly personal character creation process to the players. True? Well, not quite. Your responsibility for ensuring a good game extends even to an oversight capacity for PC creation, and today we'll discuss why and what you should do.

First off, it should come as no surprise that even the most liberal and hands-off DM has to step in occasionally during the character creation process when a player asks to play wholely inappropriate races or classes. You will have a vision for what kind of game you wish to run, and inevitably certain kind of PC's simply won't fit. Say you're starting the gameoff in a sleepy village that's mostly humans and halflings. Having a player start as a demon or orc or golem would simply not make sense (though of course you could find a way if you really, really wanted to). So to a degree, the DM has to set the limits on what's allowed and what's not.

Beyond that basic function, however, you as the DM have to ensure that the players collaborate enough to create a functional party. I don't know how many times I've been in games where the DM has ignored the character creation process only to look up when everybody is ready and suddenly panic: how is he going to gather these disparate characters together? And what's worse, how is he going to convince them to work together in the long run? This can because of simple differences such as alignment (try getting a group of Lawful Good and Chaotic Evil PC's to get along), or because the PC's are simply of such different natures (a haughty, racist Elf and a disgruntled, Elf hating Dwarf). By then it's too late to change things, and the DM will have to resort to forcing things together, the players going along with it despite the fact that their PC's would in reality break away from the party if they could.

So it's crucial that the DM be part of the character creation process. Get an idea of what everybody wants to play first before they start to roll die and write things down. Get a concept from each person, and then deliberate whether that will work with the rest of the party. Usually most people will pick compatible PC's, but inevitably someone will want to play an evil PC or a loner PC or something problematic that won't work with the rest of the group. That's when you need to step in and talk them into playing something more compatible with everybody else.

Your role isn't to dictate what people can play, but more accurately inform them as to what they can't play. Alignments, races, classes, or even general concepts that won't work can be ruled out, saving you a lot of trouble down the road when it comes to making the party function in a natural way. Even better, a canny DM will take the opportunity to get the players talking about what sort of party the group is going to get together, what role each PC will play, so that the group can hit the ground running when it comes time to get started!

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