But that doesn't mean the OP is wrong to feel like the Daisy creator is sort of an oddball thing to have tacked on. It's novel and a bit non sequitur, or at least not something the player would probably expect to have to do in normal D&D char creation. There's also no follow up there for several hours of gameplay, and what does follow is instead the big opening scene with the Nautiloid being chased by Gith Dragon riders.
Absolutely! I think it is a good idea in general to make that section slightly more clear. :]
Now imagine instead, that after the "Who do you dream of? What attracts you" part, there was a little preamble cut scene where your dream lover actually says or does something, to set the mood or tone of the opener. Doesn't have to be major, just something. That would work more forcefully and effectively than a text box or a VO snippet.
Right now "who do you dream of? what attracts you" is pretty vague. Maybe the player thinks they are creating a second party member or a sidekick, or an ideal companion, or they think its a proxy for character sexual orientation etc. When what the game seems to be asking us to do is create a physical avatar for our inner Jungian Anima/Animus.
Which is a cool idea actually, but the player doesn't necessarily know what they're doing, and won't really find out until way way later. I can see where the gripe is coming from.
That would be really cool! I was thinking that perhaps after creating your character, one could have a voiced text box saying something in the line of: "While you were being abducted, you had a strange dream of a very beautiful person. What did they look like?" I mean, it would be kinda clumsy to "return" to character creation just as you thought you finished it, but I mean... That is already a thing with the current Daisy-character creation as well. *shrugs*
Then afterwards there could be this very short cut scene where the screen starts off as black, our characters open their eyes and see Daisy approaching/standing there, and shortly after we hear their voice saying "wake up!" After that the screen goes black and we can proceed as usual. Basically just replace the mind flayer after character creation. It would also line up with the idea that the mind flayers are trying to call for assistance from their tralls at the helm. c:
Also something to let the player know explicitly that they're talking about attraction "in others" as opposed to like some aspirational self or mirror thing. Or perhaps if other sections of the Char creation process had a similar treatment, with a new window or prompt similar to the daisy one, it might fit more naturally. Even without hitting alignment on the nose they could do one where the player tells the game their characters beliefs, and maybe that's the section where they choose their Deity? Or to borrow a simple thing from Westerns like picking a Black Hat or White Hat, to the tell the game you're interested in playing a Hero or a Villain?
Deity selection really has to be included for all classes tbh. It is just so odd to find it missing in a DnD game. :< While I don't think it is necessary to include a hero/villain route already at start, as I believe that is something that should be open for the character to develop as the story goes, there REALLY should be a way to choose a deity. I mean, obviously there are A LOT of deities in DnD so they could just add a few racial options based on race, and the most common greater deities and then a "Small Deity"-tag that has a description of something like: "Faerûn has many deities to choose from, and I/you decided early on to dedicate myself/yourself to one of the lesser known ones." They could even include a blank line for the player to fill, in case the character speak of their deity later on. A RP-heavy veteran could pick a smaller deity like... Idk, "The Raven Queen" while some other person less RP oriented person could choose the name "The Flying Spaghetti Monster of Pica" or something :'] Each to their own!
