The Process

This coming Saturday, December 6, 2025, I will be having a Session Zero with my Saturday Table where I am the GM. We are then going to go into character creation, utilizing my process for my campaigns regarding character creation. This is probably a good time to talk about that; why I use it, what it is, how I use it specifically for GURPS, how it can and should be tweaked to circumstances and where I think that it might have some bumps in the road.

I like to listen to music when I write. If you’re into that vibe, and wanna listen while you read (and have Spotify) then play the song below and keep reading!

Rules

First of all, at the tables I GM for we have rules that we have agreed to. They have evolved over time. So any new people joining as players should be made aware of them and agree to them.

Pretty simple stuff. Pretty normal stuff. Lets talk about The Process now.

Why?

We are trying to enable longform, in character/as character play in an otherworld, using engaged, open world play, where there is no predetermined story and any narrative created is the history of what occurred as the player characters made decisions. A lot of considerations need to be dealt with to attempt this but the first is enabling the players to create grounded characters in the otherworld. This will require a collaborative process, as well as the player having control over the character they create. The Player and the GM make the character together; the Player makes the Character and the GM is the enabler and provide both the limits the otherworld by its nature will impose on the character and aid the Player in taking advantage of opportunities the otherworld provides to the character concept.

Both the Player and the GM need to have investment in the process of making the Player’s character and enabling their vision but still ensuring that vision fits into the otherworld, and thereby the campaign. The desired end state is that the Player makes a character they enjoy that is appropriate to and will be able to be played to the fullest of their abilities in the otherworld. As well, the GM completely understands all abilities, weaknesses, social connections, allies, enemies, rivals, faction connections, etc. relating to the character.

What?

The Process has five steps. A caveat is that for all players at my tables, I use this process. Its not for new players or novices. Its an organic part of beginning a new campaign or introducing new characters to an ongoing campaign. This process should all take place after table discussions about the “next thing”, the sharing or identification of materials for the otherworld and the Session Zero.

1. The player and and GM discuss a character concept. Practically speaking for this could be a simple voice conversation or other discussion.
2. The GM sends a blank word Bio Sheet template they have made for the campaign, designed for that setting.
3. The Player fills that out to the best of their ability and sends it back.
4. The GM makes mechanical preparations in their system of choice based on what has been discussed and what the player has written. Those may have been created already by the GM.
5. The GM and the Player make an appointment to make the character in a one on one meeting. At the meeting the Player and the GM work out any final questions or details regarding the Bio Sheet and they then make the character. The Player makes the choices, the GM is there to advise, offer suggestions, provide genre, otherworld and setting limits, opportunities, information and “lore” to aid the Player as well as bear witness to the choices and decisions so they can be used in the campaign effectively.

How (GURPS)?

Specifically using GURPS for this process, based on my current tables, the assumption is that it will be online and that GURPS Character Sheet (GCS) will be used for actual implementation of the character creation mechanically. These are tips or tweaks elaborating from from the above specifically for these conditions in italics below.

1. The player and and GM discuss a character concept. Practically speaking for this could be a simple voice conversation or other discussion. It’s always a voice or video conversation via Discord. We may have one or two followed by some DMs.
2. The GM sends a blank word Bio Sheet template they have made for the campaign, designed for that setting. No changes. I’ll give some examples of some different bio sheets below in this article and talk about specific things regarding specific otherworlds/campaigns.
3. The Player fills that out to the best of their ability and sends it back. Frequently there are sections that the Players isn’t sure of, doesn’t know yet or wants to talk about. That’s cool and we’ll save that for later.
4. The GM makes mechanical preparations in their system of choice based on what has been discussed and what the player has written. Those may have been created already by the GM. For GURPS, I make appropriate mini-templates and mini-lenses based on what we have discussed and what the player has written. Examples might be a Knight with the Rank and Duty from their order in a mini-template with the duty to that order. Another might be a species template for a Dwarf. If everyone is a soldier in a US Army Unit a mini-template for Boot Camps and maybe successive mini-templates for different occupations will be readied. Some could be done before this step, some might need to be made for that character. This is the time to make a set of “powers as magic” for a particular character, etc.
5. The GM and the Player make an appointment to make the character in a one on one meeting. At the meeting the Player and the GM work out any final questions or details regarding the Bio Sheet and they then make the character. The Player makes the choices, the GM is there to advise, offer suggestions, provide genre, otherworld and setting limits, opportunities, information and “lore” to aid the Player as well as bear witness to the choices and decisions so they can be used in the campaign effectively. We make the character together with GURPS Character Sheet (GCS). I almost always stream my screen and do any nug work during the meeting. Some of this is me explaining things about the mini-templates or created powers, etc. so the player understands them. Things can be tweaked of course. This is a time to create Disadvantages, Advantages, Allies, Enemies, Patrons, Reputations, etc. Usually with a GCS/GURPS-familiar player those big moving parts are the the things we are prioritizing and then later they buy skills independently and send me the sheet when they are done. Then I look it over and finalize it. But sometimes, its a good time to talk about what skills are appropriate for the otherworld/setting and what skills may or may not be of use, etc.

In my experience this all is a huge time-saver. Sure, I make mini-templates and whatnot, but its more efficient and targeted to the character. The approach of making long lists and options for templates, magic lists, power lists etc. for a group of six players is kind of silly. I’m not a publisher. I am not writing a supplement. But I also want to avoid analysis paralysis or collective multi-session level character creation marathons and the endless back and forth cause by just saying “Here’s 150 points and -75 points in disads. Here’s the books. Good luck guys.” So this provides a balance. Its as if you wanted to cook a nice meal for six friends. Well, why would would you prepare a restaurant menu for them to choose from? But also, why would you have them over and just throw a cookbook and groceries at them and ask them to make it? The middle ground is helping them get the exact meal they wanted.

Bumps

First of all, I think the process overall works really well for systems like FATE, HERO or someone using a ruleset like the Ubiquity rules for a setting. They are variations on a theme, and function similarly in essential concept of not using random character generation, so they gel well with The Process. Other systems or games pose more problems. I think its very well suited to BRP or any other game published by Chaosium, but some do rely a bit more on random generation processes whichg make the process more troublesome. What are a “fair set” of basic attributes? The published Chaosium settings are far more wedded to Templates and Archetypes which don’t gel well with The Process. Finally Class/Level based games like D&D are really a bad fit. It relies on random attribute generation and a very hardwired class template. I think the same thing applies to classic Traveller generation too, as an example. The Process would work great for GURPS being played in the Traveller otherworld, as an example, but the heart of Traveller itself is the idea of randomly generating an entire character concept and then just playing that out.

Another bump is a person who just can’t do The Process. They are just so inculcated culturally in the hobby to random character generation processes or the strange idea that the player goes into some alcove alone and makes their character without any consultation or aid that it won’t work for them. That’s fine, and if you are running a table, that may be a secondary aspect of The Process, aiding in choosing your players.

Examples

There are two examples for Bio Sheets below. The first is the one I used for “Cry Havoc”, Twilight:2000 Powered by GURPS. The second is the one I am using for my upcoming ASCEND-NA (Accelerated Societal and Civilizational Evolution Networked Directorates North America) Campaign. In another article, possibly next week, I’ll discuss the ins and outs of that Bio Sheet and how I curated what was in it for the particular needs of that otherworld and campaign. This Process, however, has ended.