Your Very Own Meat Grinder

[scottanderson]

I made up a document that simplifies the character funnel concept to just a few lines of generative text and four charts.  There's also some cool work on character backgrounds, mainly gleaned from an article Zenopus put up on his blog years ago but also with some new stuff I added, and cleaned up nicely.  

[hengest]

Thanks, this document is great.

[scottanderson]

Why do I put up my work here and not at a more famous web site? Unsure, but it's probably for a mix of reasons.

[tetramorph]

Oct 1, 2016 23:59:29 GMT -5 scottanderson said:

Why do I put up my work here and not at a more famous web site? Unsure, but it's probably for a mix of reasons.

This is an interesting thing to add.

Care to elaborate?

[Admin Pete]

Oct 1, 2016 23:59:29 GMT -5 scottanderson said:

Why do I put up my work here and not at a more famous web site? Unsure, but it's probably for a mix of reasons.

I thnk that you and other members will help make this website more famous. I love it that you post here!!

[scottanderson]

1. Hal is so unendingly positive and welcoming. It makes it easier to share something secret and maybe embarassing

2. The things I make, they're not as good as the great things some folks make. They're just my little scribbles. I'm diffident about them.

3. Maybe this is like an open mic night for content? Like, even if it's awful, not a lot of people will see how horrid it is. This reason is kind of a mix of the first two though.

4. Even though OSR people are by and large not out for blood, having critical and jaundiced eyes cast down upon my little experiments is frightening. There's no one here who strikes me as a cross examiner.

I also put much of the stuff here up on my little weblog, which is gratifying if ultimately obscure.

[Admin Pete]

You are selling yourself short. I have found that a lot of the best people IMO are selling themselves short and I want to encourage anyone that is creating old school stuff to bring it here and not to worry about whether or not some of the more vocal self-proclaimed experts/naysayers like it or not.

[Admin Pete]

Oct 2, 2016 15:48:20 GMT -5 scottanderson said:

3. Maybe this is like an open mic night for content?

We are open mic night for content!!! I love that line!!

[makofan]

Interesting. Not a big fan of the meat grinder funnel concept, but I love the evocative nature of the Background table. That is something I could use

[Admin Pete]

Oct 3, 2016 9:05:21 GMT -5 makofan said:

Interesting. Not a big fan of the meat grinder funnel concept, but I love the evocative nature of the Background table. That is something I could use

I agree, where he said at the end:

You can use these backgrounds separately from your Meat Grinder characters, too, by assigning or rolling randomly for a background for each of your Level One characters as well.

I think this is great for people who would like to have a background for their characters but are short on ideas and this is a great way to jump start things for new players. A nice sharp tool to add to the ole toolbox.

[scottanderson]

18 of the 20 are taken from the types of men named in the several volumes of OD&D. Two of them are added in (Pilgrim and I think Farmer) to make it a nice even 20.

[jeff]

I'm quite fond of Zenopus's Backgrounds for OD&D. They were the catalyst that jump started me out of my BECMI comfort zone and showed me the potential of OD&D, that everything didn't need to be spelled out explicitly in the rules and that not everything needs its own class.

Here's a link for those who may have missed it.

zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2014/08/20-backgrounds-for-od.html