I'm making up some RPG rules, and came up with a different "ingame" character creation process. Thoughts?

Hey,

So basically the system itself is based loosely on a simplified version of the general Cortex RPG ruleset.

Basically there are a few number of core attributes and an infinite amount of skills for all possible situations, when you perform an action your success is determined by adding the skill roll together with the appropriate attribute.

Basically a character sheet is ridiculously simple because it only needs to have attributes, skills, special traits, and then items.

You buy these stats with "character points" where each player starts with a certain amount, and then spends them on stats according to the rules.

My idea was to instead of buying the stats before the adventure begins, the players are instead dumped straight into the story with totally blank characters, with totally average attributes and no skills, they haven't got anything except for their pool of character points. When the players first describe their characters to each other they must decide how many character points they spend on the purely physical attributes that can be noticed just from looking at them.

When the characters need to perform a new type of action for the first time, the skill is first "auctioned off" for character points, and the DM then gives them a deal such as "Spend 0 character points and have lvl 1, spend 4 character points and have lvl 3, spend 15 character points and have lvl 6). The players then decide on which "deal" to take for their character, and put it on their sheet and then remove the price of the skill from their pool of available character points.

The players should from the beginning have a good idea of what they want their character to be like, so they should choose wisely from the beginning and should "save" their character points except when buying skills they really want their character to excel at. This also has the added benefit that players can change their mind during the campaign though, and also makes sure that there's usually at least one person who is good at the task they are faced with.

The idea is that the adventure should play out "like a movie" IE. you don't know what the characters are like until you actually see them in action. So you won't know if a given character is extremely good in combat until you see him fighting (at which point the player decides if he wants his character to be good in combat or not), or how intelligent someone is until they perform a task that requires lots of thinking.

If the character performs exceptionally well with a skill or performs a notable action, the DM might also give them a "deal" for an attribute or trait related to the skill or action. An example could be that the character performs a hacking attempt masterfully, and the DM then offers him a higher intelligence for x CP. The PC can accept or decline this offer, if he accepts, the character is now, in retrospect very smart (has an above average intelligence compared with the other PC's, because they all started with average attributes.)

This can also be used with traits, such as if a character disembowels an enemy during a sword fight, the DM might offer him the trait "blood thirsty", that improves his fatal attacks in combat, for a given CP price, and the PC can accept or decline, and if he accepts, lore-wise, his character has always been this way.

So skills, attributes and traits are not "gained" when you buy them for CP, they are just "revealed" to the other players as they become significant for the campaign.

Sometimes if something goes bad, or if there's a complication of some kind, the DM might also "buy" negative traits or attribute losses for CP. So if a PC loses in a fist fight with a drunk teenager, the DM might offer to "buy" a lower strength score for CP's. If the player accepts the offer, his PC is revealed, through his actions, to actually be physically weak (he gains some CP he can use later though, so he is bound to be good at something else).

This can also be done with negative traits based on other circumstances. So if a PC discovers a stash of drugs, the DM might offer to buy him the negative trait Addict for an amount of CP, and the PC can accept or decline.

I hope you get my general idea for this character generation method. I think the best way to describe it is the movie or book simile - you don't know what the character is like until you see him/her in action. I hope this method would make it easier to jump straight into the fray in adventures and make it easier for new players to join in.

I would love feedback and ideas on how to improve it, and also advice from someone who have tried systems like this before (is there anything you need to be careful of?)