Starting at level 0 ?

[runequester]

Digging through CHaracter law, it struck me... has anyone tried starting a game at level 0 (basically you get adolesence development but not apprentice development)

Undertake a few basic tasks, then after the first session (keep it simple and easy.. not much if any combat), you go through apprenticeship and become a "real" character.

[Fornitus]

 More and  more my players are getting to start a new scenario at age 8 or 9. Basicaly, I am running a generaly solo adventure to create the personality and such of the new character BEFORE the group gets together and everyone falls into the old rolls from previous characters.
I just have them spend their first buy and run a small something, then have them spend their other points and get the group together.
Works great for making the new PC a unique PC.
I base the little adventure on an idea i had or on a background roll they or I have made for them.

[lev_lafayette]

I'd love to see an level 0 adolescent character try to get the initial 10,000 experience points!

Actually, even this aside there is more than a few gaps in the recommended ep tables (pp71-74 RFRP) for 0 level characters and some of which don't extrapolate with ease.

For example, the kill ep chart (p73) assumes that 0-level characters can be victims but not protagonists. Likewise the chart itself has a fairly disproportionate drop from the experience received from a 1st level character killing another 1st level character compared to a 1st level character offing a 0 level character.

One is probably best off just using the recommended equation for characters over 10th level for all levels (assuming one uses a standard ep system at all) i.e.,

200 + (50 x (opponents level - character's level) with a minimum of 200.

[dutch206]

Pure essence users would be at a distinct disadvantage in such a campaign.

[Fornitus]

 Pure casters can be fun for mini 0 lvl adventures. It just requires them to THINK insted of just magicing their way out of everything.
A current PC my wife is running (Arcainist Summoner) used some Runes that her master made to defend the tower they live in that was attacked while the Master was away.
obvously, the attackers were not a PRO group, but it was fun to run and added a lot of flavor as background. (casting a Rune of Nether Ball out the arrow slits)

[runequester]

I propably wouldnt use the XP system for level 0. Just give them 2 or 3 small quests, before they "ding" to level 1

[Chorpa]

Otherwise a simple solution for anyone wanting to use the standard XP system is to award XP as lvl 1 characters but just consider every challenge one lvl higher.

For example a group of lvl 0 characters need to "defeat" a lvl 2 npc to complete their goal.

That would give the players xp as for a lvl 1 but the "defeat" xp would be calculated as for a lvl 3.

Ofcourse this is just a suggestion, but probably how I would do it.

[Arioch]

I like the idea, and in tha past I've been tempted to do something like that, but never done.
I agree with runequester; instead of following the normal XP rules I would probably go for a couple of quests which lead the PC to level 1.

[croakerdogboy]

I used Level 0 for the starting level for a RM2 campaign using Outlaw rules. I had a young character starting in Missouri during the Civil War. Paw killed by Redlegs and all that.

However I was using the No Profession for all of the characters to try and get a realistic setting. (I found the Outlaw professions to be a little odd).

Anyway it worked out pretty well.

[Balhirath]

I almost always start my players at level and it works just fine

And as an argument for those that think that 'they will never survive to level 1', please do remember that accirding to the rules you get 5 times the XP first time you do anything
That can kick most players to level 1 in a few sessions. I dont really give out XP, I just GM for the players until I feel that they are getting to know their characters and then they become level 1

ALso I sometimes have players to develop level 0 using the skill cost from the No Profession.
I do this because unless the player is trained from childhood on his choosen profession, why should he or she use the skill cost of that profession. It also give the players a reason to their characters childhood and there are many interesting things that can be learned in childhood. Like Stalk/hide, jumping, running and all the other things that we did as children when playing hide & seek. A child is not bad a hide and seek, just because he or she later starts training in how to be a sage.
I had also had characters that started out as being trained as mages, discovered that it wasn't their calling in life and switched to becomming bards or fighters (I allow this as a total change of profession as the only point in a characters life, where they can do that) Ofcause they never learned anything else than a few prosaic spells, but it was fun anyway to play anyway.

[Old Man]

I've used it for young NPCs and it has worked fairly well. Goes in sync with using half of Central Casting (only the childhood portion).

Ciao,
Old Man

[Skaran]

We normally create the players family before deciding on a starting template. For example if a character rolled up that their father was a fighter then their adolescence generation would use fighter costs to reflect the "following in fathers footsteps" sort of thing. The apprenticeship period would then be in the characters actual chosen profession.

It should be noted that in my games few characters had parents who were farmers so that template wasn't used much though I do remember one game where the character who did have a farming background tlked an awful lot about turnips.

[smug]

Because 1st level Rolemaster characters are just too damn powerful?

[Warl]

I ran a 0 level game once,

I had everyone start with the Non-Profession from RM2 to begin with to spend their adolescent dps on. Then During the course of the "beginning" of the campaign they had to decide what they wanted to be and actually find a "mentor"/ trainer/teacher to teach them that profession. especially those that wanted to be mages,couldn't just pick up a spell book and learn it on your own.

[dutch206]

OOH! OOH!  I know! 

The first quest that every RPG player hates the most:  "I have rats in my cellar."  (Only the rats turn out to be three to six feet long and the 'cellar' is the size of a small mansion.) 

[Justin]

OOH! OOH!  I know! 
The first quest that every RPG player hates the most:  "I have rats in my cellar."  (Only the rats turn out to be three to six feet long and the 'cellar' is the size of a small mansion.) 

Anyone else having Daggerfall/Morrowind flashbacks? 

[Rivstyx]

I actually did this in a campaign as well.  The players started with their characters developed only through adolescent and 5000 xp.  They were shipwrecked on an island run by an evil cleric.  Their actions dictated their skills.  We put a dot next to the skills they used during the adventure and from that we determined their overall profession when they reached 10000 xp.  It was fun and had some unexpected results.

[Fornitus]

 I rember using "Ike likes spiders and snakes". Basicaly a guy with a small circus in his basement. Theif breaks in and get killed by posion, but lets all the creatures out of their cages. PC's get to search in allys and basements of neighbors. And of course he wants them back ALIVE.....