Some articles will be like this one, generic enough to be applied to any game system, while others will be more system dependent. The first few articles will be from my prior unreleased (or at least not widely released) writings since I’m still somewhat busy with getting all the bugs out of ENWorld.

Before we begin I would like to point out that I would like to see other weekly articles ran. If you have an idea for an article series and you think you can come up with two to three thousand words a week then drop me a line on my profile or using a private message if you’re a community supporter. While ENWorld can’t pay you, we can give you visibility in front of people who can pay you.

First a bit about myself – While I earn my living as a programmer my love in high school and college was theatre and this is what I studied way back when. It was through this avenue that I was first brought to D&D and the rest is, shall we say, history. I learned quite a few things about acting as a discreet discipline while in college and this first article is a distilled version of what I’ve learned altered to fit better with tabletop role-playing. That said let us begin.

The physical externals of your character – such as eye color, hair color, skin color, weapons carried and clothing worn are the first thing that other characters will see. Indeed, the first question you are likely to be asked is “what do you look like?” You need to keep your answer concise unless you’re out to put the rest of the table asleep, a couple of sentences at most. Pick out the most striking feature of your character and go with that. You can bring up other details about your character as you describe his actions. For instance if your character’s ancestral sword has a ruby in the pommel then a good time to mention it is as you describe swinging your sword at some foe.

The questions that follow cover almost any physical attribute that can arise in a character – far more than you could describe in under a minute and probably more than can come up in a single game session. If a question inspires you write down the answer, but don’t spend too much time with any question here. Novels do not present full character descriptions in the first few paragraphs and neither should you. This is particularly true of campaigns with a high level of lethality – it’s downright counterproductive to create a character description four pages long only to see the character killed three rounds into the first combat of the night. As your character rises in experience and the party as a whole spends more time with him or her you can embellish the description a bit at a time.

Hair

What color? Curling or straight? Long or short? Bald? How is it worn? Free or in a pony tail? Dreadlocks? What about beards and moustaches? Blackbeard the pirate was famed for wearing lit candles in his hair and beard during battles, and while your character may do nothing like that, there may (or may not) be something memorable about your character’s hair (or lack thereof) and the way it is worn. What about a halo? A halo is a stock of white hair among normal colored hair. The character Rogue from the X-Men comics is an example character with this hair feature.
Hair color is loosely often described as blonde, red, black or brown. Here are a few words to more specifically describe a hair color beyond those words.

• Black Hair: Jet, Midnight, Smokey, Off Black, Brownish Black
• Brown Hair: Chocolate, Cinnamon, Pecan, Walnut
• Red Hair: Deep Flame, Rust, Sunny Red, True Auburn
• Blonde: Butterscotch, Deep Red/Blonde, Dull, Gold, Honey, Strawberry, Yellow
• Gray: Silver, Snow-White, Dull Gray, Platinum

Does your character’s hair have highlights? It is common enough for highlights to be applied today but they also occur naturally. Does your character die her hair – hair dyes feel modern, but in truth they date back at least as far as the Egyptians. Further a magic using character isn’t limited to natural colors since changing hair color for a few days is well within the rights of a prestidigitation or similar minor magic.

Eyes and Face

The color of your eyes and the set of your face can be your most memorable features. What color are your eyes? Are they the same color (They don’t have to be – the condition of having two different eye colors is known as heterochromia. RPG designer Keith Baker has this trait as does actor Dan Aykroyd and actress Kate Bosworth). How are they set in your face? Close together or far apart? Are they wide (Typical of Caucasians & Africans) or narrow (Typical of Asians & Native Americans)? Eyebrows – are they thick or sparse? Are both eyes present? (a character missing an eye will have a bit of menace to him).

What of ears? Large or small? Does the character have a large bulbous nose like a gnome, or a broad flat one like an orc? Other details will be memorable only if they are unusual, like a character with high cheekbones or a low, sloping brow. Facial scars stand out and are difficult to hide.

There is a limit to how much facial description you can give with words before the other players and the GM nod off to sleep, but if one member of the group knows how to draw well you’d be well served to bone up on your ability to verbally describe your character’s appearance if you are to effectively convey to them what your character is supposed to look like. Another approach is to write down the description of your character, make copies, and hand those copies out to the other players to give them something to read while the action doesn’t involve their characters.

In the end, a picture here goes a lot farther than a lengthy description. Failing that use a photo. “Cast” a movie star as your character and simply give their name. Or go online – many actors keep studio portraits in their online résumés that you can “borrow” for your own private use.

Gender

Most players play their own gender because it is, simply put, easier. It is more difficult to play across gender than might first be apparent. Unlike the fantasy races of the game, which are largely stereotypes, men and women are by no means stereotypical – yet many players do select and play a stereotype when running across gender. The results are at best comical, but at their worst insulting, especially in a mixed group. While men and women have different behavioral tendencies that entire psychology doctorate papers have been written on, they are just that – tendencies. Each character is an individual. Some things the character does may fit the stereotype, but it is highly unlikely that everything about the character will fit any stereotype. Note also that playing out of gender requires the consent of the rest of the players and the DM – some individuals are squeamish about such things.

Race

Each of the standard races has certain advantages and disadvantages that make them better suited to some character classes and skills than other. While it may be fun to play an off-color class race combination, such as a half-orc paladin in 3rd edition, you have to ask yourself – is it worth the trouble?

Ignoring the rules for a moment, remember that each race has certain tendencies of behavior that help to define them. Your character is by no means bound to behave like the other members of his own race, but the more eccentric he is the harder a time he will have dealing with members of his own race. A stoic, hard-headed dwarf is no surprise to an elf, but an elf that encounters a stoic-hard headed elf is going to be put off. Worse yet, the very paranoid may believe your character to be polymorphed.
Like the character’s gender, her race is something that she cannot escape from easily. It is part of her identity and self image in a way that our own nationalities define us, but even more so since they cannot be laid aside (without magic anyway).

Movement

Is the character graceful or clumsy? Dogged or refined? Limp? Note a character with a low dexterity may have no choice but to move in an awkward manner – but a character with a high dexterity may feign clumsiness out of habit.
Is the character right or left handed? Most players choose the hand they favor themselves. Another way is to roll a d6 and a d20. If the d20 roll is higher, the character is right handed. If the d20 is lower or there is a tie the character is left handed.

Clothing

A character’s clothing choices – or costume – reflects the character and her environment in subtle and not so subtle ways. A character who is somber and restrained is likely to wear conservative clothing, while an outgoing individual is more likely to keep up with fashion trends and add flash and dazzle to their costume or wear jewelry. A character who doesn’t like to be noticed won’t wear clothes that grab people’s attention.

The current environment of the character will also affect costume choices. Despite the illustrations of many fantasy artists, a female wearing a chainmail bikini in a snowstorm is brazenly tempting fate.

Distinguishing Marks

Does the character have a mole? A tattoo? A scar? If yes to any of these questions then where? What about a hunchback? Missing limb or finger? How were those marks received, and does the character conceal them or show them off.

Voice

How does your character talk? Nasally or with a lisp? Loud or at a whisper? An uneven cadence to the character’s speech can be an indicator to a low intelligence as can the character’s word choices. Unusual vocal qualities to the character can also make it clear as to what you said in and out of character. Also, unusual word choices can indicate that the common tongue is not your character’s native tongue. For instance, Chinese speakers of English often forget articles such as “the” “a” and “an” because these simply aren’t present in their native language. Japanese speakers have difficulty with the “r” sound because their own language has no equivalent. English speakers of Spanish often are unable to trill their r’s for the same reason. Entire word choices can be affected by native language – In Spanish one usually begins replies to questions with “Por Que” which roughly translates as “Because.” I have on several occasions met ESL students beginning their English responses the same way although it sounds downright odd to a native speaker.

While odd voices and accents can be fun, be careful about giving your character a voice that is uncomfortable for you. A roleplaying game is a poor excuse to give yourself a case of laryngitis.

The Rules and Description

Your strength, dexterity and constitution scores can be used as a clue to what your character is built like. Note that your charisma score does not control your basic appearance, but it will affect how well you present yourself. A character might have great innate beauty, but dress and behave in a fashion that conceals that beauty. A character with only average looks may know how to dress and behave in a way that accentuates what beauty they have.

A character with a high strength score will have muscles, but how large and how visible are modified by dexterity and constitution. A character with large bulky muscles is very powerful, but ponderous (low dexterity). A character with rock hard but deceptively small muscles does not tire quickly and can move very fast along with his power (high dexterity). Hence muscle size is described by Strength & Dexterity.
Muscle definition is determined by Strength & Constitution. If a character’s muscles are not visible, or barely visible because of body fat, the constitution score is probably low. If you can almost count the muscles on the character for lack of body fat the character’s constitution is probably high.

A character with a midrange to low strength and a high dexterity score is probably very lithe and supple. If the split is extreme as it is with many halflings the character is probably double-jointed (in other words the character can voluntarily dislocate minor joints without feeling pain and put them back into place).

A character with low strength and a high constitution is probably overweight but not grotesquely so. When muscle mass and body fat are high the workout on the heart is extreme, hence the low constitution ruling above. If one or the other is high obesity usually appears when constitution gets the upper hand – to a point. If a character has a low constitution and a low strength then if the dexterity is low the character is grossly overweight – if the dexterity is high the character is emaciated and underweight (i.e. many elves).

A character with all three stats high looks much like a Mr. Universe contender, with an ideal weight and perfect muscle cut – a model specimen.

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All artwork (c)2008 Claudio Pozas