Characters

The best thing about Fifth Edition is its emphasis on the narrative aspects of character creation. In 4e, characters often felt like nothing more than a massive jumble of stats and powers. The game rules did not prevent seasoned RPG veterans from creating three-dimensional characters, of course, but the system itself did not provide much help on that front, especially for newer players. Fifth Edition, in contrast, does a great job of encouraging people to think of characters as fully-fleshed-out individuals who occupy a specific and meaningful place in the world. With personality traits, flaws, bonds, and the like, the new system puts all of that narrative detail right there on the character sheet alongside traditional game stats. I love it.

We'll use the pre-generated characters for The Lost Mine of Phandelver, primarily so that Matthew can learn the game rules. It won't be long before he's coming up with heroes of his own. He creates lots of characters to populate his Lego stories, and he's certainly familiar with many aspects of the characterization of DC and Marvel superheroes (origins, motivations, etc.), but he has yet to engage in any sort of sophisticated character building. I can't wait to see what he comes up with!