Most gamers define their role playing experience in term of the campaigns that they have run or participated in. Although convention gaming is fun and rewarding in its own right, campaigns are the place role players can truly tell grand stories about characters that are both believable and heroic. Yet while this is the case, it is disturbing that so many role players play campaign characters that are one dimensional and boring. If you have ever heard a player describe her character as a 5' 10" female human fighter with brown hair and blue eyes, you know exactly what the problem is. A campaign character represents a real person, which is infinitely more than the sum of physical characteristics, race, and class. The goal of this article is to make the creation of a detailed, believable character not only a fun process but a worthwhile and productive one as well. Some people view creating their persona as little more than crunching numbers with a pencil, dice, and rulebook, but it should be much more than that. Your character is a tool for role-playing, and having good tools is vital for any job. Of course, this system is unnecessary and overly cumbersome for creating oneshot or short term characters. These characters will not hang around to have a long term impact and need not be as intricately detailed as campaign characters. Planning the concept The first thing to consider, even before thinking about what kinds of characters you are interested in playing, is what kinds of characters will be acceptable in the game you will be playing. This means contemplating the requirements of the genre, game system, and finally the specific campaign the character will be used in. This information is generally very easy to come by; most skilled players consider it without even thinking about it. If you are familiar with the genre and system you will be playing, you will know that certain types 0 characters can be ruled out immediately. For example, take the popular Call of Cthulhu game. In its 1920s horror genre, a computer programmer, being a construct of the later 20th century, is obviously out of place. Knowing a little about the genre, however, helps you to form a list of appropriate characters. Soldiers returned from the Great War, gangsters participating in bootlegging operations, and virtuous GMen are all characters that would fit in well with the genre of Call of Cthulhu. Shifting from genre-specific to systemspecific characters for CoC, you might know that musty librarians, unbalanced authors, and inquisitive antiquarians are a mainstay of H.P. Lovecraft's world. If you didn't know those things, then a little research in a rulebook or at a local library would turn up those sorts of ideas. As another example of system-based character ideas, take Warhammer Fantasy Role Play. In the Warhammer world, there is a cult of dwarves who have dedicated their lives to hunting down and slaying trolls wherever they are found. Other perennial Warhammer favorites include the witch hunter and rat catcher. If you don't know much about the system you are to be playing, ask your GM or do a little reading in the rule book. At worst, it will provide you with a little more background information about the game. In addition to genre and system- based characters, there may be campaign- specific options as well. Your GM may have created races or occupations that are of interest to you. There may be a special caste of citizen that grabs your fancy. Since this information is likely unpublished, you will have to pick your GM's brain for such tidbits. You may also want to consult with your GM before beginning creation in earnest to find out if there are any special needs in the campaign. Perhaps a cleric is needed in order to facilitate party motivation along religious lines. A strong leader type may be called for to bring the party back together after some particularly bitter infighting. Of course, it always makes sense to think about bringing in a character whose skills are especially in demand or are missing from the party stable. Diversity in party composition is the oldest rule in the book. After getting an idea of what falls within the bounds of reason, you should begin to form several loose concepts of characters you might want to play. A concept need not even include a profession or race, though it often does. "Confused rural shoemaker" and "aberrant halfling chef' are examples of concepts from a fantasy game. As concepts build in your mind, you may find it useful to make notes or jot some ideas on a scratch sheet of paper. As you think about different character concepts that you would be interested in playing, consider them in the context of the game you will use them in. "Bold Knight of Galahad" would have an entirely different application in a campaign of epic fantasy as opposed to one where the focus was on wringing money from the local economy through fair means or foul. As you consider possible concepts, also begin to think about what rules ramifications each would have. In a system where magic backfires more often than it works, it takes a special breed of player to be successful with a wizard. When you have developed two or three concepts that sound interesting to you, take a closer look at them. Some concepts may strike you as interesting, but are outside the scope of your experience. Personally, I would find it more than a little difficult to play a mutant alien slime beast in any kind of long-term game. I have profound respect for a fellow gamer who manages to successfully play a sentient broccoli who is attuned to the Force in Star Wars games. Such oddities are fine for one-shots in strange games like Tales From the Floating Vagabond or Toon, but if there is absolutely no commonality or place to relate from, you are probably best off going with something else for the long haul. The other thing you will want to look for in narrowing your choices is whether you have played the same type of character often in the past. Many players go through character after character, but always seem to wind up playing the heroic yet withdrawn loner, who is always confident, and always has a quick retort for everything (or insert your own stereotype). Try something new if you look back and find that you have played variations on the same character for the past year. The worst thing that will happen is you will gain a little experience in other aspects of the system you are playing. This is not to say that if you know that you don't like playing some types of characters you should do it anyway-only that you may enjoy something new just as much. If, however, in the end, all you like to play are female dwarven thieves from clan Dranel, then so be it. This is a game. The most important thing is that you enjoy yourself. Rounding Out Your Concept After considering your list of concepts and narrowing it down to one idea, it's time to really go to town. For all of the characters I develop, I think about four critical areas of that character: background, personality, goals, and relationships with others. These overlap at times, and often some are more important than others in a specific character concept. In any case, though, all four could be considered, and some notes jotted down. Background deals with the character's history. "How did she come to be an adventurer?", "What was her childhood like?", and "Why is she the way she is now?" all deal with background. Since you know something about the campaign world from talking with your GM about it, you probably already have a vague idea of where your character is from and what influences there shaped her life. Thinking about what your character did in her adolescence will help you when you are doing the rules work and are trying to determine what hobbies and secondary interests your character would have. Your character's race (be it human or non,human) is, of course, part of her background, and will affect many other facets of your character. A strong background is essential, since personality, goals, and relationships with others all flow directly from it. When considering personality, above all consider personality types that you would like to play. You should also, however, keep in mind the inclinations of the rest of the party when deciding on a personality. Nothing is more annoying than when one player persistently brings in anti-social and bothersome characters one after the other, only to have them quickly expelled from the party, injured or killed because of their bad manners. Also consider that when playing, your character's personality should be overstated slightly, to give a firmer impression of her traits. In real life, we all have varying degrees of personality. In fantasy, however, it's no fun to have to be a psychologist in order to determine how a fellow adventurer will react to a certain situation. This is not to say that all characters should have overblown, extroverted personalities. Introversion and shyness can be overstated and embellished as well. Goals are an important facet of character creation that many players, even highly experienced ones, tend to overlook or even ignore. It is important that you provide your own impetus to adventure. If your character has no reason for allying himself with the party, then it becomes a tedious chore at every session to come up with a new excuse not to simply leave the party. The GM is not responsible for providing motivation for your character (though she is responsible to provide the opportunity to fulfill them). Goals can be as simple as a desire for adventure (though an adventur ous spirit is certainly hackneyed motivation) to a desire for revenge, to anything that you can imagine. When considering your personal goals, make sure that they are compatible with the goals of the campaign. An evil cleric is of little use on a great holy quest. Relationships with other people is another facet that is often overlooked or taken for granted. It can be a great boon to ,the GM when a character has a ready-made reason for appearing. Inviting someone's old university buddy to join the party is much more realistic and believable than adding some guy that you just found in a bar. Entire character concepts can be based on relationships. For example, you might want to try your hana at playing that virtu, ous paladin's old flame. When thinking about relationships with others, think outside the party as well. How does that character get along with major NPCs that the GM has established? Has he met the Lord of the Realm, and if so, what does he think? How does Sir Roald the Bold get on with beggars and common street scum? Thinking about these types of things in advance can often help to crystallize your thoughts on a particular character and will make playing him easier as well. Statistics for Fun and Profit After generating a concept and thinking about what makes it tick, you are ready to begin the nuts and bolts of character creation, dealing with the stats. Even though this article is not concerned with any particular game system, there are some good bits of advice and commonalities for all rule systems. In all game systems, there are effective and ineffective ways of doing things. In order to get the most you possibly can out of your character, you need to know the rules of the game system. For many, this is no problem. They have played the system in question for years, and know the ins and outs like their last character's old boots. If the game in question is a new one, however, making a character can be a daunting task, especially for complex systems. There are two ways of getting around not knowing the rules very well. The first and most obvious is to pick up a copy of rules and read them. Since that holds about as much facination as studying for a final exam, I prefer to gather someone who has played before, preferably run the system before, and have them take you step by step through character generation. Your GM is the most likely candidate for this type of common courtesy. You should also make sure that he or she has the time. Offer to take them out to dinner as a reward--it makes for a contented: GM. Another bit of good advice in any game system is to remain organized. It can be quite frustrating (when creating the character and when playing) not to have that bit of information you remember generating handy, or to have written in an obscure hand on a dirty smeared napkin. It pays to be neat. Get a clean character sheet, write neatly (and in pencil). If it makes you happier, make notes on a separate sheet of paper, though beware of accidentally throwing it away. Finally, you should be flexible. In many cases, especially when generation is partially or wholly random, you could come up with a character that is not what you wanted or expected. This is not nessarily bad. You can think of it as challenge, or, as a welcome addition to your character's personality. On the other hand, in some cases you will wind up with a character that is so far from the one that you wanted that there is no real resemblance at all. In the latter case, seek your GM's permission to simply start over. Most are reasonable and should allow that. Please note that this should not be an excuse to re-roll any character that would not be Superman. "But hey, all 17s aren't as good as I wanted!" is not a good reason to begin anew. It bears mentioning that. YOU should be familiar with the rules governing your character. It is irritating for the GM to have to explain integral rules mechanics over and over. In a campaign I recently played in, one of the players (who was playing a mage) had absolutely no idea how to cast spells under the system we. were playing. Every time he tried a spell, the GM would explain the process and waste everyone's time. Do everyone a favor and learn the rules that pertain to your character. Quirks and Questions One last step is now necesary--develop quirks and tendencies. How? By answering questions about your character. What mannerisms does your character have? Perhaps a vocal accent, stutter, or particular phrase. How about distinguishing physical characteristics? Perhaps old wounds that act up before it rains, or beet red face when angry. Do it have any prejudices, such as Dwarves antagonism towards Elves? Is your character religious? How will it act towards other religions? Hatred of Thor is a bad trait in a member of a party including his clerics. Where is your character's family? Does your character ever visit his parents? Perhaps they don't approve of the character's chosen lifestyle, or perhaps the character is adventuring because of a need to prove himself to one or both of his parents. Think about where any siblings or more distantly related relatives fit into the picture. What does your character like to eat? This could reflect his personality, the area he grew up in, what was commonly available here, or any number of other factors. This is especially interesting for characters with little money to afford their favorite food. What does: your character think about money? Not everyone is out to accumulate wealth. Perhaps he donates all or most to charity, and if so, which one? Answering these questioins will help you get a character outside the context of the personality systems that you generated. While it is not strictly necessary to answer all or even any of these questions about your character, you will probably find that the more you think about how your character is, the more fun your roleplaying session. Finishing Work Once you have all of this information on your character sheet and in the form of a lot of notes on his background, personality, goals, relationships, and quirks, you should write it all up in some kind of cohesive form. Though this is not necessary, it helps make sure you don't forget about them in between sessions. Many people enjoy doing the write up in 1 or 2 pages. It will also help the GM immeasurably in how you get introduced to the party and creating adventures that take in account your background. Your role playing opportunities multiply the more the GM knows about your character and her background. Some players find that keeping a chronicle of their character's adventures is also exciting and rewarding. After every session of play, you can jot down in as much detail as you like exactly what went on, from your character's point of view. Not only does this make for some interesting reading later on, it can be an important source of clues when considering the campaign on a grand scale. It can serve as a good refresher at the beginning of the next session when everyone is trying to remember what happened last time. At the end of the campaign, everyone might pool their notes and a grand volume of the campaign might be assembled for everyone to read. It will be rewarding to take that collection down from the shelf in years to come and revisit favorite characters and forgotten campaigns. Characters Develop No personality is completely static. Everyone changes over time as a reaction to her surroundings. Your character can change, as well. In most cases, the events surrounding a campaign are stressful and can (and should) have an impact upon the psyche of your character. Specific events in the campaign can have an impact on your character. One example from a Shadowrun campaign I ran was of a pair of slovenly characters who suddenly found that a young street kid had "adopted" them. They quickly realized that their beer-swilling and television-watching lifestyle would have to be tempered with making sure that Charlotte had done her homework and was actually in bed instead of roaming the streets. Other events such as a romantic interest or religious experience might similarly change your character. It is important to note that although characters change over time, they don't change radically with any kind of frequency. If your character is vastly different from session to session (unless he is insane or unstable), then he will become less credible. Generally, if you often find that you are totally outside the scope of the original character concept, then you have probably gone a little too far. An Example In order to give you a better understanding of this process of creating a character, I'll work up an example from scratch. For this example we'll assume that we're going to play a science fiction/space opera game. The campaign is just starting out, and so we don't yet know what the other players are playing. The GM has already told us that the campaign will revolve around a group of freelance traders who will travel around the galaxy in search of ever-increasing amounts of money, with all the adventure they can pack in along the way. Keeping that in mind, we can begin to generate a few concepts that will be both fun to play and will help advance the plot that the GM has set forth. My first idea is an escaped inmate from a mental ward. This character would have many useful skills, since not only is he insane, he comes from a shady background. For a character like this to get along in the group, his insanity would either have to be mild or relatively harmless. Murdoc (from the A, Team television series) is a good example of this concept. My second concept is that of the laconic pilot. This Han Solo archetype flies the group's starship, and probably owns it as well. He is generally gruff and hard to get to know well. His main role-playing shtick would be that he is constantly making wisecracks at dangerous times. The happy-go-lucky tech is my final concept. This character is responsible for making sure that all of the party's equipment, from personal weapons to starship, is functioning properly. On the side, he also makes gadgets and gizmos that are fun if not slightly dangerous. Considering these three, I like the tech the best. The Mutdoc concept is intriguing, but could become old as his insane antics continue from adventure to adventure. The laconic pilot is just a little too stereotyped for my taste. While the pilot role is necessary, I will hope that someone else in the group will come up with a concept that is not so generic. This leaves the tech, who will be fun to play and will also fill a useful role in the group. Now that I've decided on a concept, I'll round it out. I think that I'll name him Aristotle (at least that's what everyone calls him). Thinking about his background, I decide that he came from a rocky planet called Rys Prime where the atmosphere is poor and civilization only exists underground and in domes on the planet's surface. Rys Prime is a major repair and refueling stop for starships on the Terrell Route between two major trade centers, and so a large segment of the planet's industry is involved in servicing starships. Aristotle joined up with one of the mechanical colleges on Rys Prime after having a semi-successful secondary education (he got into trouble a lot, since he spent most of his time in the physics lab constructing bizarre devices out of old experiments). He graduated from the college with honors, and signed up to work as a repair tech in one of the orbital repair facilities. There, he met up with some of the other party members who persuaded him that it would be much more profitable (and fun) to accompany them in their mostly-but-not- quite-legitimate business. Not normally comfortable with crime, he was hesitant, but in the back of his mind he has plans for building his own custom starship, and he knows that he will never make enough to realize that dream fixing ships. In light of this, he decided to go out into the wide galaxy with these new-found friends. With that background in mind, Aristotle needs a personality. As a happy- go-lucky tech, he generally ill-suited to deal with the criminals and other shady personalities that he will encounter. He tends to see the best in people (probably much to the annoyance of any streetwise or cynical members of the party). In conversations, he speaks his mind, either not knowing or caring enough to beat around the bush or conceal what is really going on in his mind. Any time conversation turns to spaceships, he will tell anyone and everyone exactly what is wrong with various designs, and how his ship will circumvent those heinous flaws. Finally, due to the lack of abundant living space on Rys Prime, Aristotle is somewhat possessive of his space and his things, his shop and tools in particular. Anyone found touching his tools will be quickly and rudely told exactly whose tools they are and that if they feel the need to use his things, the least they could do is ask. As far as goals, we know that his main motivation is the construction of his own custom starship. This fits in well with the overall goal of the campaign, that of trading across the galaxy in order to accumulate wealth. It will no doubt take quite a while for Aristotle to accumulate enough money, but in the meantime, he will be drawing up plans, inspecting other ships to see what works and what doesn't, and establishing the contacts he needs to get all the parts and other items he will eventually require. Others in the party will probably like Aristotle. He generally will treat people decently, as long as they refrain from Violent crime in his presence and keep their hands off his tools. He could be at odds with whoever owns the ship, since he will constantly be pointing out which parts are poorly designed and which systems will need to be replaced immediately, "because you just don't put the inverse flow regulator next to the replicator service ductwork." After all of this, we simply need to sit down with a rule book and figure out Aristotle's stats. He will, of course, be skilled in all things technical, and will probably be smart, perhaps even a genius. I would want to do a little research on how the system handles the construction of gadgets and things like that, since a major part of his arsenal will consist of various self-made contraptions. Finally, I go through the twenty questions routine. As far as mannerisms, Aristotle has a hydraulic wrench that he tosses up in the air and catches when he's working out a technical problem in his head. "I can't think without my wrench!" he is often heard to say when he has misplaced it. When speaking, he often degenerates into tech-talk, leaving others in the dust. To this end, I might want to jot down a list of technical-sounding words and phrases to use at times like these. Aristotle does not like the starship designs of Hawthorne and Hawthorne, and so is quick to insult and deride their products wherever he finds them. Any employees of that company he should happen to meet should beware the tongue-lashing that they will get for "polluting the galaxy with those rusted garbage scows that they call starships." Aristotle is not religious, and has never really given any thought to it at all. That is something that could develop in the future, though. Aristotle doesn't think about his family often; he was never really that close to any of them. He has a cousin that joined the Imperial Navy, though, who could be encountered at some time in the future, possibly giving the GM a hook to use sometime. He generally eats whatever is put in front of him, and has been known to subsist on soy from vending machines for as long as a week at a time when he is busy working on a project. Finally, he is interested in. acquiring all the money he can, and putting it away until he has enough to realize his dream of completing his own starship. After all of that was done, I would write up what I know about Aristotle, photocopy it, and give the GM a copy. Then he's ready to begin his space-faring adventures! Conclusions This system is not the be-all and end-all method of character creation. It serves only as a guideline to help in the creation of characters that will in the end be more fun to play because of their depth. Much of the joy of role-playing stems directly from the character, which is why it is so important to have a good one. That being the case, I hope that this article has provided you with some insight on how to make good ones that you and your fellow players will find both amusing and inspiring. Back to Shadis #22 Table of Contents Back to Shadis List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines © Copyright 1995 by Alderac Entertainment Group This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com